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Cleft team strategy and caries experience in patients with a cleft lip and/or palate, a multicentre study
L S van der Knaap-Kind1, Gisselle Carbajal Rodriguez2, M A Schorer-Jensma3
1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Special Dental Care and Orthodontics, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands. l.kind@erasmusmc.nl.
Background:
Most cleft teams in The Netherlands have a paediatric dentist as a permanent team member, but differences persist in patients receiving general or specialised dental care in-between team visits. The current study aims to find out if different strategies regarding dental care result in different caries experience and restorative care levels of cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) patients.
Methods:
The cleft team of the Amsterdam University Medical Center, presented as Team Spec, refers all CL/P patients at age one to specialised dental care. The majority of CL/P patients treated in the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, receive dental care from a general dentist, Team Gen. Data on decayed teeth (dt), missing teeth (mt), filled teeth (ft), sum dmft and restorative care level for the primary dentition of CL/P patients were compared with independent t-tests. Negative binomial hurdle regression and generalised linear models were used to correct for age, gender and cleft type. No comparison of the costs of both strategies was made.
Results:
The restorative care level of Team Spec (51.50%) was significantly better than Team Gen (29.31%) (p < 0.001). Though sum dmft of both teams was comparable (p = 0.32), patients in Team Spec had fewer missing teeth due to caries (p = 0.01).
Conclusion:
Receiving specialised dental care is beneficial for the restorative care level of CL/P patients.