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Are there any solutions for improving the cleft area hygiene in patients with cleft lip and palate? A systematic review
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Objective: Children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) present high incidence of oral
health problems, namely those associated with the accumulation of dental plaque.
The objective of this systematic review was to verify if there is any solution to im‐
prove the hygiene of the cleft area.
Materials and methods: A structured systematic review was performed based on
articles published in several electronic databases: PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane
Library and Scopus in the last 20 years. The MeSH terms used were cleft lip, palate,
harelip, oral hygiene and toothbrush.
Results: From 270 potentially relevant articles, 39 articles were selected, corre‐
sponding to a total of 3226 CLP patients and 914 matched controls. The selected
studies exhibited great heterogeneity regarding the type of the study, study popula‐
tion (average range 0 ‐49 years old; sampling sizes 15‐400 CLP patients), evaluation
periods, reported variables and oral hygiene routines. Consensual outcomes were
the presence of high plaque indexes, high prevalence of dental caries and worse oral
hygiene patterns in CLP patients. Additionally, poor education in oral health and low
motivation to integrate regular hygiene routines in the daily family life were also
evident.
Conclusion: There is a clear need to improve the oral hygiene care of CLP children,
but few studies were focused on specific preventive approaches. Development of
devices especially designed to the hygiene of the cleft area and implementation of
standardized prevention and control programmes targeting education, motivation
and compliance would contribute to improve oral health in CLP children.
Description
Keywords
cleft lip palate dental caries dental hygiene DMF‐S/T harelip oral hygiene toothbrush