Dental anomalies associated with cleft lip and palate in Northern Finland

Authors:

ABSTRACT

Aim

Despite the reported occurrence of dental anomalies of cleft lip and palate, little is known about their prevalence in
children from Northern Finland with cleft lip and palate. The aim was to investigate the prevalence of dental anomalies among patients
with different types of clefts in Northern Finland.

Methods

Design and Statistics: patient records of 139 subjects
aged three years and older (with clefts treated in Oulu University Hospital, Finland during the period 1996-2010 (total n. 183) were
analysed for dental anomalies including the number of teeth, morphological and developmental anomalies and their association with the
cleft type. The analyses were carried out using Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. Differences between the groups were
considered statistically significant at p values < 0.05.

Results

More than half of the patients had clefts of the hard palate,
18 of the lip and palate, and 13 of the lip. At least one dental anomaly was detected in 47 of the study
population. Almost one in three (26.6) subjects had at least one anomaly and 17.9 had two or three anomalies. The
most common type of anomaly in permanent teeth were missing teeth followed by supernumerary teeth. Supernumerary teeth were
significantly more apparent when the lip was involved in the cleft compared with palatal clefts. Missing teeth were less prevalent among
those 5 years or younger. The prevalence of different anomalies was significantly associated with the cleft type in both age groups.
CONCLUSIONS: Dental anomalies are more prevalent among cleft children than in the general population in Finland. The most
prevalent anomalies associated with cleft were missing and supernumerary teeth.

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