title: Primary alveolar cleft bone grafting in unilateral cleft lip and palate: arch dimensions at age 8.
abstract: The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether primary alveolar cleft bone grafting in infants with unilateral cleft lip and palate (N = 17) leads to less favorable dental arch dimensions at age 8 when compared with other 8-year-old patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate who received no alveolar bone grafting procedures (N = 49). Dental casts were obtained for the primary grafted group, and arch lengths and widths were digitally recorded with a reflex microscope. These arch dimensions were then compared with the reported data for a nongrafted group and a noncleft group of 8-year-old children. The major findings were: 1) that the dental arches of both cleft groups generally demonstrated a significant diminution in length and width (P < 0.05) compared with the noncleft groups, and 2) that the patients who underwent primary alveolar cleft bone grafting showed no statistically significant difference for any arch dimension (P < 0.05) when compared with the nongrafted group lacking this additional surgical procedure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Facial Development, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, USA.
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Hathaway
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Eppley
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Hennon
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sadove
mesh_terms: D000539:Alveolar Process / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000601:surgery*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016025:Bone Transplantation; D002648:Child; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000601:surgery; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000601:surgery*; D003724:Dental Arch / Q000254:growth & development*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D003765:Models, Dental; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012272:Ribs / Q000637:transplantation; D013524:Surgical Flaps