Does the rehabilitation treatment predispose the patient with cleft to endodontic treatment?

Abstract

Aim: to verify the relation between endodontic treatment of teeth adjacent to the cleft area and the rehabilitation of patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate, at the Hospital for Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies. Methods: the present split-mouth study was composed of 406 individuals with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate who had completed the rehabilitation process in a single tertiary cleft center (55.9% males). The information was collected from the dental history on the patients’ records and radiographs. The frequency of endodontic treatment in the upper incisors and canines was calculated for the cleft and non-cleft sides. The comparison between sides was performed by the chi-square test (p <0.05). Results: endodontic treatment was more frequent in teeth adjacent to the cleft than in contralateral teeth. The frequency of endodontic treatment in at least one tooth adjacent to the cleft was 18.97%, and 11.6% on the contralateral side. It was observed that endodontic treatment was necessary in 63.5% of patients who had been submitted to orthodontic treatment, 42.4% of those rehabilitated with fixed partial dentures and 12.0% of patients who underwent dental reshaping of teeth adjacent to the cleft. The treatments performed included vital pulp therapy (46.1%), non-vital pulp therapy (46.8%) and endodontic retreatment (7.1%). Conclusion: in individuals with complete cleft lip and palate, teeth close to the bone defect area and used for rehabilitation treatment presented greater need of endodontic intervention.