title: Oral health-related quality of life in non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate patients: a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in non-syndromic patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP), in comparison to a general non-cleft population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Systematic review. A literature search was conducted to identify papers reporting on OHRQoL in cleft samples. Only studies with suitable control groups were included. From each included paper were extracted the study and sample characteristics and results.
  
  
  METHODS
  OHRQoL score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three papers were chosen according to the preset inclusion and exclusion criteria. All used an OHRQoL generic patient-reported questionnaire with evidence of a development and validation process, with responses recorded on a five-point scale. The results could not be combined for the purposes of meta-analysis due to lack of standardisation. In 2 of the 3 studies, the OHRQoL was found to be significantly lower in the cleft than in the non-cleft samples (in patients 8-18 or 18-65 years of age). The third study, based on a relatively small sample size, could not detect significant differences between cleft and non-cleft individuals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the results of the few studies included in the present systematic review, non-syndromic patients with CLP tend to have a lower OHRQoL than a general non-cleft population. This seems to hold true both for children and adults.
authors.affiliation: Division of Orthodontics, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada. gregory.antonarakis@sickkids.ca
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Antonarakis
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tompson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000523:psychology*; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult