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Reliability of the novel cleft lip and palate smile esthetic index (CLP-SEI)
Jonathan Luyten1, Laurent Thierens1, Noëmi M C De Roo1
1Department of Orthodontics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Background/Objectives:
The aim of this research was to determine the reliability of a novel index for the assessment of smile esthetics in patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CL ± P) at the end of their multidisciplinary treatment, for use in clinical and academic settings.
Materials And Methods:
Five orthodontists, five periodontologists, five general practitioners, five dental students, and five laypeople rated the smiles of 10 patients with CL ± P twice at a 2 weeks interval. The rating scale consisted of four main categories: 1. nasolabial esthetics, 2. gingival esthetics, 3. dental esthetics, and 4. overall esthetics. A total of 15 parameters were rated. Intra- and inter-rater agreements were calculated using SPSS.
Results:
The inter-rater agreement varied between good and excellent whereby the orthodontists, periodontists, general practitioners, dental students, and laypeople obtained agreement scores of 0.86, 0.92, 0.84, 0.90, and 0.89, respectively. The intra-rater agreement was good with agreement scores of 0.78, 0.84, 0.84, 0.80, and 0.79, respectively.
Limitations:
Smile esthetics were rated on static pictures, not in real life or by video recordings in a young adult population.
Conclusions/Implications:
The cleft lip and palate smile esthetic index is a reliable tool for the assessment of smile esthetics in patients with CL ± P.
