Objective This investigation was conducted to determine the agreement between three-dimensional (3-D) calculations from CAT scans and two-dimensional (2-D) calculations from standard dental radiographs in evaluating bone support for cleft-adjacent teeth after primary bone grafting. Design This retrospective study utilized CAT scans and dental radiographs taken of the alveolar cleft in patients an average of 11 years after primary bone grafting. Setting The subjects were patients treated by the Cleft Palate Team at Children's Memorial Hospital and Loyola University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois. Patients Fourteen UCLP patients (9 males, 5 females) agreed to participate In this study by undergoing CAT scan assessment of their alveolar cleft sites. They also had to have periapical or occlusal radiographs of the grafted cleft site taken within 6 months of the CAT scan. Interventions All patients underwent primary lip repair, placement of a passive palatal plate, primary alveolar bone grafting (mean age 6.4 months), and palatoplasty before 1 year of age. Major tooth movement through final orthodontics was completed by the time of the radiographic assessment. Main Outcome Measures CAT scan sections were reformatted and reconstructed to three-dimensionally calculate the percentage of root covered by bone support for the 15 teeth adjacent to the grafted cleft sites. Dental radiographs of the same teeth were also traced and digitized. Percentages of root supported by bone were also established using the dental radiographs by dividing the amount of root covered by bone, by the anatomic root length. Results A paired, two-sample t test revealed no significant differences between the two methods of assessment, while linear regression showed a statistically significant correlation between the CAT scan assessment and the percentages found on the radiographs. Conclusions Routine dental radiographs were able to estimate the total 3-D bone support for the roots of cleft adjacent teeth as determined by CAT scan to a statistically significant degree when groups where compared. The clinical significance for evaluation of individual cases was less impressive with a wide range of variability and a level of agreement that required acceptance of differences up to 25%.

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Delaying all cleft closure surgery until 5 years of age and older is unnecessary to maximize palatal growth. The best time to close the palatal cleft space is when the palatal cleft size is 10 percent or less of the total palatal surface area bounded laterally by the alveolar ridges. The 10 percent ratio generally occurs between 18 and 24 months but can occur earlier or later. There is more than one good type of palatal cleft closure surgery.