Use of palatal prosthesis on velopharyngeal dysfunction treatment: systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Velopharyngeal dysfunction is a prevalent congenital disability associated with cleft palate. Its treatment is directly linked to the cleft's therapeutic resources, with both the surgical and prosthetic options available. Surgery is often not recommended to maxilla-cleft patients due to anatomical, functional, or even personal issues. Therefore, the prosthetic alternative has been growing in feasibility as an aesthetic and functional option for treatment through palate prosthesis. There's a need for a study to evaluate the clinical following conditions on these prostheses and report complications, success, and survival rates since the literature is scarce of review works in the area. Thus, this project's objective will be to conduct a systematic review to assess the survival rate, satisfaction, aesthetics, improvement in the quality of life, and other aspects in cleft palate patients, who have undergone palate rehabilitation prostheses. As a realization criterion, the PRISMA-P protocol and registration in the PROSPERO database will be executed. The research group will consist of specialists in the area who work at the Bauru Hospital for Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies and Unisagrado - Bauru. A detailed search of the main databases (Medline / PubMed; Cochrane Library; EMBASE; SciELO; Scopus; DOSS and Web of Science) will be carried out for articles published until July 2021. The software Sigma Plot 12.0, Comprehensive Meta-analysis, Review Manager 5 (RevMan 5) will be used, and the Microsoft Excel® program to perform the meta-analysis. A significance value of 0.05 will be considered. Based on the researched studies, the objective is to establish a direction for clinical care, to facilitate the dental surgeon the rehabilitation and monitoring of this group of patients.