More caries in primary teeth of children who have cleft lip and palate

Abstract

Data sources

Medline (PubMed) was used to identify published data for the review.

Study selection

Case–control studies were included if they used controls matched for age and sex, with non-cavitated and manifest caries lesions as outcomes, and were published in English, German, Swedish, Danish or Norwegian.

Data extraction and synthesis

The studies were assessed independently by two reviewers and scored A–C according to predetermined criteria for methodology and performance.

Results

Significantly more caries was reported in children who had cleft lip and palate (CLP) in two out of the four studies in the permanent dentition and in three out of four publications dealing with primary teeth. None of the articles was scored as ‘A’, however, and the level of evidence was therefore based on three papers graded ‘B’. There was a tendency towards higher caries scores in preschool children but, as there were conflicting results, the evidence that children with CLP exhibit more caries than noncleft controls was inconclusive.

Conclusions

There was a clear tendency towards more caries in primary teeth in children who have CLP. No firm conclusion could be made because the quality of the eligible studies was low to moderate and there are also conflicting results. Better quality research is needed within this area.

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