Asymmetric Dental Development Investigated by Cone-Beam Computed Tomography in Patients With Unilateral Cleft Lip and Alveolus.

Objective: To investigate a possible delay in dental development of cleft-side teeth compared with the contralateral teeth in patients with unilateral cleft lip and alveolus with or without cleft palate (UCLA ± CP) and to correlate this delay to developmental stages of the corresponding teeth.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Cleft Lip and Palate Care Center of Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai, China.

Patients: Forty Chinese patients with UCLA ± CP.

Main Outcome Measure: Crown height (CH), root length (RL), and full length (FL) of permanent incisors, canines, premolars, and first molars were measured using cone-beam computed tomography and compared between cleft and noncleft sides. Discrepancies in tooth length between sides during different developmental stages of delayed teeth were also compared.

Results: There were no statistically significant differences in tooth length between sides in the mandible, except for RL of lateral incisors and RL and FL of the second premolars. In the maxilla, CH, RL and FL of cleft-side incisors, as well as RL and FL of cleft-side canines and first premolars, were all significantly shorter than those on the noncleft side (P < .05). The lateral incisors showed the highest reductions in RL and FL (47% and 29%). Moreover, reduction of RL of cleft-side maxillary central incisors was most evident in the early developmental stage (23%) and decreased with dental maturation (5%).

Conclusions: Asymmetric dental development was presented in both jaws but mainly in maxillary anterior region. The RL deficiency of cleft-side central incisors differed at different developmental stages.