ORAL AND DENTAL-HEALTH STATUS OF CHILDREN WITH CLEFT-LIP AND OR PALATE/

Objective: To ascertain the oral and dental health status of children with cleft lip and/or palate. Design: Oral and dental examinations wer e carried out on 114 selected children with cleft lip and/or palate, u sing standard criteria and indices. Setting: These children were exami ned at two cleft palate clinics in the United Kingdom. Patients: All c hildren examined were between the ages of 3 and 18 years. Results: Six ty one (53.5%) of the subjects exhibited no evidence of previous carie s experience, but as many as 20% exhibited active decay, The mean cari es experience in the deciduous dentition (dmfs) was 2.3, and that in t he permanent dentition (DMFS) was 0.9. Caries experience of the Caucas ian children of the sample was lower (mean dmfs 1.9) than that of the Asian children (mean dmfs 5.5). The mean simplified debris index of th e sample was 0.9, and the mean gingival bleeding index was 0.4. Childr en with cleft lip and palate had generally poorer oral and gingival he alth than those with isolated clefts of the lip or palate. Conclusion: Twenty percent of the sample had active decay. These children had poo r oral health in the surgically repaired anterior segment.