Functional analysis of cleft lip and palate patients with modified Rakosi method.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the mandibular functions of patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) by means of modified Rakosi Functional Analysis and to test whether there was a risk of tendency to temporomandibular joint disorder when compared with Angle Class I non-CLP patients. Fifteen patients with unilateral CLP with a mean age of 12.2 +/- 1.91 years and randomly selected 15 Angle Class I orthodontic patients with a mean age of 10.5 +/- 2.01 years as a control group. None of the subjects had complaint of symptoms of temporomandibular joint disorder in their histories. All subjects were evaluated using modified Rakosi Functional Analysis method in accordance with a scoring system of the findings. Intra- and extracapsular clinical functional surveys were taken. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to evaluate the differences between the CLP and non-CLP groups. There was a significant difference (p <.01) between the distributions of the total scores of the two groups. A significant difference (p <.05) in right lateral movement was also observed between the two groups. However, there were no significant but borderline differences in clicking, crepitus, and maximum mouth opening findings between the two groups. Because these results do not explain the reason for the aforementioned differences, further studies seem essential.