A Cleft-Customized Occlusal Rating System to Assess Orthodontic Occlusal Improvement in Patients With Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to develop a new method to quantify occlusal improvement in patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) who had undergone orthodontic treatment and to evaluate its reproducibility.

DESIGN

A panel of orthodontists decided on the relevance of different occlusal features to score initial and final 3-dimensional study models and panoramic radiographs. A subsequent subjective analysis was later performed by a local orthodontic panel.

SETTING

The sample was obtained from the orthodontic clinical archives of a hospital known for the treatment of patients with craniofacial differences.

PATIENTS

Thirty-one nonsyndromic patients, 17 males and 14 females, were randomly selected according to preestablished inclusion/exclusion criteria.

INTERVENTIONS

The records corresponded to the period during which the patients were treated with conventional multibracket mechanics and adjunctive restorative procedures.

MAIN OUTCOME/MEASURES: The intraclass correlation coefficient measured intraexaminer and interexaminer agreements. The Spearman correlation test assessed the relationship between the local orthodontic panel perception and the improvement scores.

RESULTS

Inter- and intra-rater ICCs varied between fair/good to excellent. There was a strong correlation between the Cleft-Customized Occlusal Rating system classification of occlusal improvement and the local orthodontic panel's perception, thereby enabling the utilization of the interpretation scale by the panel.

CONCLUSIONS

The method showed to be a useful tool in quantifying and classifying occlusal improvement in this specific population. As any other method, some limitations apply and need to be accounted for.