Abstract
Objective:
To compare the occurrence of hypodontia, dental age, and asymmetric dental development in children with cleft with their siblings and a nonsibling control group.
Subjects:
The sample consisted of 54 children with cleft (aged 4.2 to 13.1 years), who had at least one sibling available for an orthopantomogram, 63 siblings without cleft (aged 4 to 14.9 years) and 250 controls without cleft (aged between 4 and 14.9 years).
Method:
Hypodontia, dental age, and asymmetric dental development were assessed on panoramic radiographs of the children with cleft, the siblings without cleft, and the control children without cleft.
Results:
Both the cleft (p < .001) and the sibling group (p < .05) showed a significantly higher frequency of hypodontia and a significantly higher occurrence (cleft p < .01 and sibling group p < .001) of asymmetric dental development, compared with the control group. Only a small, but insignificant, delay in dental development could be found in the cleft and the sibling group.
Conclusions:
The cleft subjects with siblings showed a significantly higher occurrence of hypodontia and asymmetric dental development than the noncleft control group. This may suggest a genetic component for the occurrence of hypodontia and asymmetric dental development.
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