Alveolar Bone Graft Timing in Patients With Cleft Lip & Palate

Cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CLP) is the most common craniofacial condition. Alveolar clefts are present in approximately 75% of patients with a cleft lip or CLP and often do not have sufficient support of surrounding teeth. Alveolar bone graft is commonly performed to reconstruct alveolar ridge in patient with osseous defects. Objective of this review is to critically analyze the literature to provide recommendations on appropriate timing for orthodontic preparation and surgical correction of alveolar clefts in the setting of unilateral or bilateral CLP. Search of PubMed database, MEDLINE, and EMBASE was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, 15 studies were included. Majority of studies used chronological age to classify patients versus dental age. Most studies reported orthodontic treatment concomitant with surgery (12/15; 80.0%), and used orthodontics before alveolar bone grafting (8/12; 66.7%). No consensus on the best method to evaluate the success of alveolar bone grafting. Alveolar bone grafting with pre- and post-operative orthodontics is currently the standard of care for treatment of alveolar defects in patients with CLP. Authors recommend grafting during early mixed dentition phase, just before the eruption of the permanent central incisors, typically between 6 and 8 years old. Preoperative orthodontics for appropriate incisor alignment around cleft, and may be resumed 6 months postoperative.