The presurgical status of the alveolar cleft and success of secondary bone grafting

Objective: The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate presurgical status of the alveolar cleft site and success of secondary alveolar bone grafting. Design: Thirty patient records were retrospectively reviewed. Patients selected for inclusion had isolated cleft of at least the primary palate, Patients with additional anomalies were not selected. The study population consisted of 15 female sites and 16 male cleft sites, There were two bilateral cleft lip and palate (CLP) patients and 28 unilateral CLP patients. The age at the time of the secondary alveolar bone grafting ranged from 7 years to 14 years, 4 months. Setting: The study was conducted at the Cleft Palate Clinic at the University of Minnesota, School of Dentistry. Method: Presurgical radiographs taken at least 1 month prior to the secondary bone grafting and postsurgical radiographs taken at least 6 months after bone surgery were measured. Measurements included size of the cleft defect and bone support for distal and mesial teeth adjacent to the cleft. Evaluation of success was determined on the basis of postsurgical measurements of satisfactory, intermediate, and unsatisfactory outcomes, Results and Conclusion: The size of the cleft defect was not correlated with the success rate of the secondary alveolar bone grafting. If the amount of distal bone support for the mesial tooth was the same as those in a periodontally healthy individual, a satisfactory outcome was 5.8 times more likely. If the amount of mesial bone support for the distal tooth was the same as those in a periodontally healthy individual, the satisfactory outcome was 3.8 times more likely. Although not a primary purpose of the study, it was found that in this study population, if the patient was female, a satisfactory outcome was 3.8 times more likely.