There are many papers on the dental caries incidence in child patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) and the necessity of dental care from the period of infancy has been refered to in these papers.
The purpose of this study was to survey the dental caries incidence in the children with CLP who visited the Dental Hospital of Tohoku University. The subjects were 335 CLP child patients (170 boys and 165 girls) aged 0 to 8 years.
The caries incidence was compared with those of CLP patients reported by the authors in 1977 and 1986, and nursery school children in Sendai.
The following results were obtained.
1) The tendency toward a decrease and a delay of the dental caries incidence in deciduous teeth was found as compared with our past reports. However a higher caries prevarence was still recognized among the older children.
2) It was found that the higher caries incidence of the deciduous teeth in the group of the cleft palate type was higher than in other cleft type groups at an earlier age. In the group with the CLP type, the caries prevarence in the cleft site of the maxillary anterior region was significantly higher than the healthy site in the group with the CLP type.
3) The tooth surface showing a high caries incidence was the occlusal one of the maxillary and mandibular deciduous second molars among the nursery school children, and the mandibular anterior teeth and the palatal surfaces of the maxillary deciduous molars among the CLP patients.
4) The increase of caries in the deciduous teeth was mainly found in the molars of the nursery school children but happend in the order of the anterior teeth, posterior teeth and canine in the CLP group according to age.