Digital Volumetric Monitoring of Palate Growth in Children With Cleft Lip and Palate

This study aimed to evaluate longitudinally the volume of the dental arches in children with unilateral cleft lip and palate before and after the rehabilitative plastic surgeries. This is a longitudinal retrospective study was composed by 102 digitized dental casts of children with unilateral complete cleft lip (G1) and cleft lip and palate (G2). The palate volume was evaluated at 3 periods: preoperative (T1), postoperative 1 (T2), and postoperative 2 (T3). The intra- and inter-examiner reliability was analyzed by Wilcoxon test/Dahlberg formula and interclass correlation coefficient, respectively. The intragroup comparison was analyzed by Wilcoxon test and Friedman test followed by post-hoc Dunn test. Mann-Whitney test was applied for the intergroup comparison (alpha = 5%). G1 had a significant growth at T2 (P = 0.031). G2 demonstrated a positive development at T2, but decreased at T3 (P = 0.003). The intergroup analysis revealed that G2 showed a greater volume at T1 and T2 (P P = 0.0024, respectively). T2-T1 exhibited no statistically significant difference (P = 0.262). In conclusion, there was a volumetric increase in the dental arches after cheiloplasty followed by a reduction after palatoplasty. Further investigations are necessary to validate the preliminary results of the present study.