Cleft Laterality Dental Arch Relationship Outcomes for Children with Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate in New Zealand

ObjectivesTo investigate cleft laterality dental arch relationship outcomes of children with non-syndromic complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) in New Zealand.DesignA retrospective nationwide study.SettingsVirtual 3D orthodontic study models collected prior to undertaking secondary alveolar bone grafting.ParticipantsA total of 104 patients with UCLP (L = 80: R = 24).Outcome measuresFour calibrated assessors used the GOSLON Yardstick and 100 mm Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) to score the randomised models on 2 separate assessment sessions. Weighted Kappa were used to determine the intra/inter-rater reliability for the GOSLON and correlations for the VAS.ResultsIntra-rater reliability ranged from 0.57-0.88 (GOSLON) and 0.45-0.93 (VAS). Inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.62-0.86 (GOSLON) and 0.64-0.93 (VAS).GOSLON scores for the left UCLP were 31.2% for good/very good; 26.3% for fair; 42.5% for poor/very poor while the right UCLP scored 8.3% for good/very good; 37.5% for fair; 54.2% for poor/very poor. The mean VAS for left and right UCLP were 53.4 (sd 22.5) and 44.6 (sd 17.1) respectively. Neither the GOSLON nor VAS differences reached statistical significance (both P = .08).ConclusionsFrom a clinical perspective right UCLP had worse dental arch relationship outcomes, however, these differences failed to reach statistical significance. Further studies using larger sample sizes are required to determine if cleft laterality is an important consideration when investigating UCLP dental arch outcomes.