Treatment Outcome and Factors Affecting Dental Arch Relationship in Malay Children with Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate (UCLP)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dental arch relationship of non-syndromic Malay unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) children and also assess the various congenital and postnatal treatment factors that affect dental arch relationship. Study models of 107 UCLP children were included in this study that was treated in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia over a period of 12 years (2000-2012). The mean age was 7.69 +/- 2.46 (mean +/- SD). The dental arch relationship was assessed by GOSLON Yardstick which comprises five categories; named-1: excellent; 2: good; 3: fair; 4: poor; 5: very poor. All the subjects were divided into two groups; favorable (category ratings 1-3) and unfavorable (category ratings 4 and 5) groups. Kappa statistics was used to evaluate the intra- and inter-examiner agreements and logistic regression analysis was used to explore the responsible factors that affect dental arch relationship. The mean GOSLON score was 3.15 +/- 0.9. Total 72 subjects (68% of all subjects) were categorized into favourable group (category rating 1, 2 and 3) using GOSLON Yardstick. Infra- and inter-examiner agreements were good to very good. Palatoplasty and cheiloplasty seemed to be correlated with favourable dental arch relationship using crude regression analysis but no significant associations were found. This multivariate study shows no significant association between various congenital and postnatal treatment factors and dental arch relationship.