Early alveolar bone grafting has a negative effect on maxillary dental arch dimensions of pre-school children with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate.

Objective: To evaluate maxillary dental arch dimensions in pre-school children with a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (CUCLP) after early alveolar bone grafting.

Methods: Intercanine and intermolar widths, length of dental arch and mesiopalatal inclination of both maxillary segments were measured directly on the dental casts of 42 children (27 boys and 15 girls; mean age = 5.2 years, SD 0.5; Early-grafted group), 30 children (18 boys and 12 girls; mean age = 5.8 years, SD 0.8; Non-grafted group), and 40 children (25 boys and 15 girls, mean age = 5.8, SD 0.4; non-cleft Control group). Children from Early-grafted and Non-grafted groups had a CUCLP repaired with a one-stage closure of the entire cleft. An alveolar bone grafting was performed in the Early-grafted group between 2 and 4 years (mean = 2.4, SD 0.6). A one-way anova model with post hoc Tukey's multiple comparison procedures were used to identify intergroup differences.

Results: The mesiopalatal inclination of the lesser segment in the Early-grafted group was decreased in comparison with the Non-grafted and Control groups. The intercanine width had a tendency to be reduced in the Early-grafted group relative to Non-grafted group.

Conclusions: Early bone grafting results in a larger collapse of the lesser segment than bone grafting carried out between 9 and 12 years of age.