Primary alveolar cleft bone grafting in unilateral cleft lip and palate: Arch dimensions at age 8

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 wit h other 8-year-old patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate who receiv ed no alveolar bone grafting procedures (N = 49). Dental casts were obtaine d for the primary grafted group, and arch lengths and widths were digitally recorded with a reflex microscope. These arch dimensions were then compare d with the reported data for a nongrafted group and a noncleft group of 8-y ear-old children. The major findings were: 1) that the dental arches of bot h cleft groups generally demonstrated a significant diminution in length an d width (P < 0.05) compared with the noncleft groups, and 2) that the patie nts who underwent primary alveolar cleft bone grafting showed no statistica lly significant difference for any arch dimension (P < 0.05) when compared with the nongrafted group lacking this additional surgical procedure.