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 were carried out on 114 selected children with cleft lip and/or palate, using standard criteria and indices. Setting: These children were examined at two cleft palate clinics in the United Kingdom. Patients: All children examined were between the ages of 3 and 18 years. Results: Sixty one (53.5%) of the subjects exhibited no evidence of previous caries experience, but as many as 20% exhibited active decay, The mean caries experience in the deciduous dentition (dmfs) was 2.3, and that in the permanent dentition (DMFS) was 0.9. Caries experience of the Caucasian 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 the sample was 0.9, and the mean gingival bleeding index was 0.4. Children with cleft lip and palate had generally poorer oral and gingival health than those with isolated clefts of the lip or palate. Conclusion: Twenty percent of the sample had active decay. These children had poor oral health in the surgically repaired anterior segment.