Relationship between Deciduous Molar Occlusion and Skeletal Pattern Improvement During Orthodontic Treatment in Cases with Complete U nilateral Cleft Lip and Palate Patients

Abstract

In an effort to clarify the relationship between the deciduous molar occlusion and the skeletal pattern improvement during orthodontic treatment, a total of 23 complete unilateral cleft lip and palate cases were studied. Lip repair was carried out at about 3 to 7 months of age and palatal closure with pushback procedure was accomplished at about 18 to 24 months of age. These patients were then divided into two groups according to the condition of deciduous molar occlusion at the beginning of orthodontic treatment from 7 to 9 years of age. One group of 14 patients (8 Males,6 Females) showed deciduous molar contact relationship and another group of 9 patients (5 Males,4 Females) showed no deciduous molar contact relationship, though with crossbite in each. All of these patients received active orthodontic treatment until 14 to 18 years of age. Lateral roentgen cephalograms and dental cast models were obtained from each of the patients longitudinally, and data analysis was made.
The results obtained were as follows:
1. There was little difference in the m axillary forward and downward growth inhibition between the groups with and without deciduous molar contact.
2. All of the cases preserved a stable perm anent molar relationship during active orthodontic treatment in the group with deciduous molar contact, and showed improvement in maxillo-mandibular relationship with mandibular growth of backward and downward or downward only.
3. Most of the cases in the group without deciduous molar contact did not show a stable permanent molar relationship nor improvement during active orthodontic treatment due to the mandibular growth of forward and downward, or downward only.
These results may suggest that a st able molar relationship during deciduous dentition contributes to the preservation of permanent dentition and that it also contributes to the effective mandibular growth depending upon the maxilla.