The Periodontal Status of Orofacial Cleft Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Cleft lip and/or palate is the most commonly documented orofacial anomaly and may impact the status of health and disease of adjacent teeth along with their associated supporting structures. The authors performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess whether the presence of clefts altered the periodontal status of patients.

The study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42020210178). A systematic search of literature was performed utilizing unique search strings for PubMed, Scopus, and GoogleScholar as databases including gray literature from April 28, 2020 to October 3, 2020.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal human studies published in the English language, providing information about periodontal disease and its association with cleft lip, alveolus, and palate.

Periodontal outcome measures such as gingival index (GI), clinical attachment level (CAL), plaque index (PI), periodontal probing depth (PPD), and bleeding on probing (BOP) were utilized as the main outcome measures.

Patients with clefts were predisposed to poorer periodontal outcomes. Subgroup analysis revealed compromised periodontal measures for clefts as compared to control sites without cleft which were statistically significant in terms of GI [Z = 2.44, P = .01], CAL [Z = 2.52, P = .01], PI [Z = 2.76, P = .006] and not statistically significant for PPD [Z = 0.27, P = .79] and BOP [Z = 1.47, P = .14].

Within the limitations of the review, the authors conclude that the presence of orofacial clefts may predispose to periodontal compromise when compared to normal controls. The GRADE rating was moderate.