Measurements of mandibular length in patients with total clefts

Patients with clefts suffer from maxillary underdevelopment. There is little data concerning the mandibular length. The aim of the study was to compare the measured lengths of mandibular body and ramus between the groups of patients with total clefts of lip, alveolar bone and palate and healthy individuals.

Mandibular ramus and body lengths were measured on the lateral X-ray cephalograms of 118 patients with total uni- and bilateral clefts of lip, alveolar bone and palate (45 women and 73 men) and 101 healthy individuals (69 women and 32 men). The average age of the examined group was 13.18 years in patients with clefts and 13.44 yrs in healthy individuals.

In the group of boys with cleft the mandibular ramus length was significantly longer when compared to healthy individuals. The mandibular body lenght did not show any differences between the examined groups. In the group of girls, the observations were reversed - the mandibular body length was longer in the group of girls with CLP-R than with BCLP. The difference was also observed between the groups of girls with unilateral clefts, when compared to the healthy individuals. The mandibular body length in healthy girls had the smallest mean values.

The differences in bone lengths in patients with clefts when compared to healthy individuals, are observed not only in the maxilla, but also in the mandible.