Evaluation of the dental arch in children with cleft lip and palate by means 3D digital models

Abstract

The purpose of this present study is a longitudinal evaluation of dimensional alteration of dental arches by means of 3D digital models in patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate after primary surgery. The sample will be composed of 100 digital models of 50 patients with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate. The models will be scanned through a 3D Scanner. Dental arches measurements (3Shape's R700TM Scanner, Copenhagen K Denmark) will be performed directly on the scanned images by means of a specific software, (3D Software OrthoAnalyzerTM, Copenhagen K Denmark) for the correlation within the studied periods: cleft width, antero-posterior extent of the dental arches, intercanines distance and tuberosities distance. After collection, the data will be described by means of graphs and tables. For the analysis of the intra-examiner error, paired t test will be used with level of significance set at 5%. The casual error will be determined by the Dahlberg's formula. The results were submitted to t test and ANOVA followed by Tukey test. If necessary, other tests may be applied. The significance level of 5% will be adopted for the differences considered statistically significant. (AU)