Cleft team strategy and caries experience in patients with a cleft lip and/or palate, a multicentre study.

Abstract

Background: Most cleft teams in The Netherlands have a paediatric dentist as a permanent team member, but differences persist in patients receiving general or specialised dental care in-between team visits. The current study aims to find out if different strategies regarding dental care result in different caries experience and restorative care levels of cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) patients.

Methods: The cleft team of the Amsterdam University Medical Center, presented as Team Spec, refers all CL/P patients at age one to specialised dental care. The majority of CL/P patients treated in the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, receive dental care from a general dentist, Team Gen. Data on decayed teeth (dt), missing teeth (mt), filled teeth (ft), sum dmft and restorative care level for the primary dentition of CL/P patients were compared with independent t-tests. Negative binomial hurdle regression and generalised linear models were used to correct for age, gender and cleft type. No comparison of the costs of both strategies was made.

Results: The restorative care level of Team Spec (51.50%) was significantly better than Team Gen (29.31%) (p < 0.001). Though sum dmft of both teams was comparable (p = 0.32), patients in Team Spec had fewer missing teeth due to caries (p = 0.01).

Conclusion: Receiving specialised dental care is beneficial for the restorative care level of CL/P patients.