Timing of Primary Surgery for Cleft Palate.

Background: Among infants with isolated cleft palate, whether primary surgery at 6 months of age is more beneficial than surgery at 12 months of age with respect to speech outcomes, hearing outcomes, dentofacial development, and safety is unknown.

Methods: We randomly assigned infants with nonsyndromic isolated cleft palate, in a 1:1 ratio, to undergo standardized primary surgery at 6 months of age (6-month group) or at 12 months of age (12-month group) for closure of the cleft. Standardized assessments of quality-checked video and audio recordings at 1, 3, and 5 years of age were performed independently by speech and language therapists who were unaware of the trial-group assignments.

Scandcleft randomized trials of primary surgery for unilateral cleft lip and palate: Speech proficiency at 10 years of age.

Background & Aim: To assess consonant proficiency and velopharyngeal function in 10-year-old children born with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) within the Scandcleft project.

Methods & Procedures: Three parallel group, randomized, clinical trials were undertaken as an international multicentre study by nine cleft teams in five countries. Three different surgical protocols for primary palate repair (Arm B-Lip and soft palate closure at 3-4 months, hard palate closure at 36 months, Arm C-Lip closure at 3-4 months, hard and soft palate closure at 12 months, and Arm D-Lip closure at 3-4 months combined with a single-layer closure of the hard palate using a vomer flap, soft palate closure at 12 months) were tested against a common procedure (Arm A-Lip and soft palate closure at 3-4 months followed by hard palate closure at 12 months) in the total cohort of 431 children born with a non-syndromic UCLP.

Early Secondary Alveolar Bone Grafting and Facial Growth of Patients with Complete Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate.

Objective: To investigate the craniofacial growth outcomes of early secondary alveolar bone grafting(ABG) around 6 years of age.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: 1 North-American and 5 Northern-European cleft centers.

Scandcleft randomized trials of primary surgery for unilateral cleft lip and palate: comparison of dental arch relationships and dental indices at 5, 8, and 10 years.

Background And Trial Design: The Scandcleft intercentre study evaluates the outcomes of four surgical protocols (common method Arm A, and methods B, C, and D) for treatment of children with unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) in a set of three randomized trials of primary surgery (Trials 1, 2, and 3).

Objectives: To evaluate and compare dental arch relationships of 5-, 8-, and 10-year-old children with UCLP after four different protocols of primary surgery and to compare three dental indices. The results are secondary outcomes of the overall trial.

Development of intra-oral automated landmark recognition (ALR) for dental and occlusal outcome measurements.

Background: Previous studies embracing digital technology and automated methods of scoring dental arch relationships have shown that such technology is valid and accurate. To date, however there is no published literature on artificial intelligence and machine learning to completely automate the process of dental landmark recognition.

Objectives: This study aimed to develop and evaluate a fully automated system and software tool for the identification of landmarks on human teeth using geometric computing, image segmenting, and machine learning technology.