CBCT EVALUATION OF THE ALVEOLAR BONE DEFECT IN UNILATERAL LABIO-MAXILLO-PALATINE CLEFTS. AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Introduction: Patients with labio-maxillo-palatine clefts should be operated at early ages, the cone beam CT having the advantage of a considerably reduced irradiation dose compared to the conventional CT used in current medical practice. The purpose of this study is to investigate the volume of an alveolar bone defect, such as in oral clefts, on a dried skull, using the cone beam CT as imaging tehnique. Materials and methods: A dry skull was used to mimic the skeletal defect in the alveolar ridge region and rough palate, imitating the unilateral maxillo-palatine cleft. The skull was scanned several times with a CBCT, using different examination protocols. The used CBCT equipment was PlanmecaPromax 3D Mid (Planmeca OY, Helsinki, Finland). All CBCTs were analyzed independently by 3 examiners: a specialist in oral and maxillo-facial radiology, an orthodontics and dento-facial orthopedics specialist and one in oral and maxillo-facial surgery, respectively, as to the volume of alveolar bone defect. The real volume of the alveolar defect was measured and compared with the volume defect from the imaging tehnique. Results and discussion: The 3D values of the alveolar bone defect volume showed significant differences, according to the examination protocol and examiners' observations. Conclusions: CBCT determined correctly the actual volume of bone defects in the alveolar region.