The care and management of the primary and mixed dentitions in children with cleft lip and palate

The role and aim of the paediatric dentist is to prevent disease by arming the patient and his/her carers with the knowledge to maintain oral health and to apply preventive and restorative interventions when required. Although this is a simple statement it is often, in reality, a challenge to achieve and particularly, for a number of reasons, where patients with cleft lip and palate are concerned. The basis of our care should be the Department of Health/British Society for the Study of Community Dentistry Prevention Tookit¹ and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines caries prevention guidelines 47 and 83,^2,3 together with the Scottish Clinical Effectiveness Programme's document on the prevention and management of caries in children.⁴

A PubMed (US National Library of Medicine) search looking at the evidence base behind factors such as caries prevalence, which may influence oral health in patients with cleft lip or palate, is presented in Table 1. Although this is not an exhaustive search, and a number of papers may not have been included, the relatively low number of papers looking at these issues is surprising and certainly shows the need for more research in all these areas.