A study documenting spontaneous and coordinated growth changes in young Romanian children with cleft palate is developed, for identifying the functional adaptations of oral cavity to the disrupted architecture of palate in children with cleft palate, the 3D analysis of maxillary casts being applied to visualize, evaluate and measure maxillary growth in patients with cleft palate, as well as to identify the reactive morphological pattern that could be imagined from the dimensional changes produced in the first 6 years of life. Two experimental groups were involved in the study, a former one, including 44 patients with cleft palate (16 boys and 28 girls), aged between 2 months and 6 years, operated by the same surgical team in the St.Mary University Children Hospital from Iasi. The resulting maxillary casts were 3D scanned at Multinr, in Sf. Gheorghe. The maxillary alveolar arch lines, the 4 Stilmann points (TD, TS, CD, CS) and the maxillary interincisive point were identified and marked by the orthodontist, being reproduced with 6 degrees of tridimensional freedom. The coordinates of this point were transferred to the CAD system, to graphically recreate the computerized three-dimensional alveolar arch. 4 direct measurements have been made, namely: anterior and posterior diameter of the alveolar maxillary arch, length of the alveolar arch and depth of the palate. Student’s t test, both simple and bivariate, performed with SPSS 13.0 soft, showed statistic significance for the dimensional differences of the alveolar maxillary arch in children with cleft palate, comparatively with the healthy control group.
Conclusion: Cleft palate patients have narrower and shorter maxillary alveolar arch and a flattened palate.
- cleft palate
- growth.
- maxillary casts
- three-dimensional analysis