INCISAL OVERJET AS AN OUTCOME MEASURE IN UNILATERAL CLEFT-LIP AND PALATE MANAGEMENT

The Goslon Yardstick is a clinical tool used to rank dental study cast s of persons with cleft lip and palate in the late mixed or early perm anent dentition into one of five categories. It has been successfully used to investigate the outcomes of the surgical treatment of these an omalies as well as the effects of these deformities on untreated indiv iduals. In this study, 40 study casts ranked by the Goslon Yardstick w ere digitized using a reflex metrograph. The overjet, overbite, and in cisal angulation, and the crossbites of the canines and molars were ca lculated for each of the sets of casts. Multiple regression analysis w as used to determine the predictive value of these variables upon the Goslon scores. The overjet was found to explain 87% of the variance of the Goslon score (p <.0001 ). No other component had a significant pr edictive value. The range of overjet associated with the different Gos lon scores was calculated from the regression equation. In conclusion, the advantages of using overjet as an indicator of outcome as an alte rnative to the Goslon Yardstick were discussed.