Oral hygiene of children with cleft lip and palate: Efficacy of the cleft toothbrush - A designed add-on to regular toothbrushes.

Background: The anatomical and morphological alterations associated with cleft lip and palate (CLP) favour the buildup of dental plaque.

Aim: To assess the efficacy of a new add-on to regular toothbrush-the Cleft Toothbrush, in removing the dental plaque of CLP patients, compared to a regular toothbrush.

Design: Forty-five children with CLP were randomly organized into two groups: A (n = 26, 2-6 years old) and B (n = 19, 7-12 years old). They were evaluated at days 0, 15, 30, and 60. After brushing their teeth with a regular toothbrush or with the Cleft Toothbrush, the dental plaque was recorded using an adapted Plaque Index (aPI). Data analyses were performed in IBM SPSS , and all statistic inference comparisons were made using non-parametric tests.

Results: In the first 15 days, children used a new regular toothbrush and aPI-C (teeth adjacent to the cleft) was recorded. The Cleft Toothbrush, used by all children from day 15 to day 30, showed high efficacy in removing dental plaque in the cleft area, evidenced by significantly lower aPI-C values, compared to those observed with the regular toothbrush (P < 0.001). When given free option of brushing technique, from day 30 to day 60, most of the children (38 out of 45) chose the Cleft Toothbrush.

Conclusions: The Cleft Toothbrush showed high efficacy in removing dental plaque in the cleft area, and presented high level of acceptance by parents and children, compared to a regular toothbrush. This is expected to improve the health status of the local adjacent tissues, a requirement for their rehabilitation.