Occlusion at 5 Years of Age Following Hard Palate Closure With Vestibular Flap.

Abstract

This study aims to assess occlusal relationships and frequency of oronasal fistula at 5 years of age following 2 hard palate closure techniques and to compare results. Retrospective longitudinal study. Institutional study. Study patients included 57 patients with nonsyndromic complete unilateral cleft lip and palate who were consecutively treated. All patients underwent our early 2-stage protocol for palatoplasty, which consisted of soft palate plasty at 1 year of age and hard palate closure at 1.5 years of age. Twenty-nine patients underwent hard palate closure using vestibular flap (VF group) technique (2009-2011) and 28 patients underwent conventional hard palate closure with local palatal flap (LPF group) technique (2006-2008). Occlusal relationships were assessed with 5-year-olds' index, and frequency of oronasal fistula was investigated. Average 5-year-olds' index scores for VF and LPF groups were 3.11 and 3.57, respectively (P < .001). Oronasal fistula occurred in approximately 7% of patients in the VF group and in 18% of patients in the LPF group. Hard palate closure with VF technique may provide better occlusal relationships at 5 years of age than does conventional local closure with the LPF.