Dental Impacts on Health-related Quality of Life of Children with Orofacial Clefts

Purpose: Children with orofacial clefts experience risks for psychosocial and behavioral problems, making it important to evaluate for negative impacts on health-related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and surgical history to determine if these measures correlated with caries and/or behavior during dental treatment. Methods: Data for this retrospective study were obtained for children encountered between March 2011 and August 2013. Inclusion criteria were four- to 10-year-olds with a non-syndromic orofacial cleft diagnosis. Parent-reported HRQOL data were obtained for 79 children and child-reported data for a subgroup of 23. Pediatric Quality Of Life Inventory (PedsQL) scores, surgeries, and demographics were collected from craniofacial team medical charts. Decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) and behavior (Frankl) scores were collected from dental records. Results: Significant correlations were found between total parent-reported sample PedsQL scores and dmft scores, and between the subgroup's PedsQL scores and Frankl scores. Conclusions: For children with orofacial clefts, higher caries was associated with lower health-related quality of life in the total parent-reported sample. Negative behavior was associated with lower HRQOL in eight- to 10-year-olds, who also more accurately reported psychosocial risks for negative behavior than parents by proxy. Surgeries were not associated with caries or behavior.