Type of Cleft and Socioeconomic Determinants for Increased Caries Risk Among Young Patients With Cleft Lip and/or Palate

Objective: This study aimed to identify the predictive role of cleft type, ethnicity, adoption status, spoken language at home and parental education level on the caries risk in the primary dentition of patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P). This knowledge is used to make an estimate on increased caries risk in young patients with CL/P. Design: A retrospective analysis of data concerning dental caries and basic characteristics of patients with CL/P was done. Patients were born and registered in 2016, 2017, or 2018 at the cleft team of the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Results: After Chi-square tests, the cleft type (P = .02), country of birth father (P < .001), country of birth mother (P = .002), parental educational level (P = .006), and spoken language at home (P = .002) were significantly different between 144 patients with CL/P with and without caries. Items were used in binary logistic regressions and after stepwise backward elimination resulting in most important determinants for caries in the primary dentition in patients with CL/P being: father born in another country than the Netherlands (odds ratio [OR] = 4.87, P = .001), a cleft lip alveolus and palate phenotype (OR = 3.54, P = .002), and a lower parental educational level (OR = 2.30, P = .04). Conclusion: The recommendation for the dental care professional will be to use these 3 determinants as a first prediction on future dental caries. This helps the dental professional in clinical decisions as recall intervals, referral to specialized dental care and extensiveness of caries prevention strategies and thereby improves oral health of patients born with CL/P.