Dental Caries in Children With and Without Cleft Palate: A Case Control Study

Abstract

The lack of knowledge about oral hygiene maintenance among the general population with oro-facial clefts would lead to a poororal health. The aim was to determine the prevalence of dental caries status in children with cleft palate only. The purpose of the study was to assess the prevalence of dental caries status in children with cleft palate only. A study was carried out by collecting data by reviewing patients’ data and analysing the data of 86000 patients between June 2019 and March 2020 at the private dental institute. The sample size that was taken included 19 children with cleft palate and 19 children without cleft palate (control), who came to the private dental institute. Results showed that the mean DMFT score for the children with cleft palate was 1.74 while the mean DMFT score in children without cleft palate was 5.84. The prevalence of dental caries was compared for both case and control group were compared by Mann-Whitney U test, which gave a result of p=0.000. Within the limitations of the present study concluded that, dental caries status in children with cleft palate is significantly less than the dental caries status in children without cleft palate.