[Post-orthodontic rehabilitation of the sequellae of alveolar clefts: implantation or periodontal plastic surgery?]

[Cleft lip, alveolar and palate sequelae. Proposal of new alveolar score by the Alveolar Cleft Score (ACS) classification]

INTRODUCTION

The management of cleft lip, alveolar and palate sequelae remains problematic today. To optimize it, we tried to establish a new clinical index for diagnostic and prognostic purposes.

TECHNICAL NOTE

Seven tissue indicators, that we consider to be important in the management of alveolar sequelae, are listed by assigning them individual scores. The final score, obtained by adding together the individual scores, can take a low, high or maximum value.

DISCUSSION

We propose a new classification (ACS: Alveolar Cleft Score) that guides the therapeutic team to a prognosis approach, in terms of the recommended surgical and prosthetic reconstruction, the type of medical care required, and the preventive and supportive therapy to establish. Current studies are often only based on a standard radiological evaluation of the alveolar bone height at the cleft site. However, the gingival, the osseous and the cellular areas bordering the alveolar cleft sequelae induce many clinical parameters, which should be reflected in the morphological diagnosis, to better direct the surgical indications and the future prosthetic requirements, and to best maintain successful long term aesthetic and functional results.

[Prosthetic and surgical options in the rehabilitation of the after-effects of alveolar clefts]

The question of final-phase treatment and prosthetic rehabilitation is posed for the young adult patient who has followed a program of surgical, orthopedic, and orthodontic work aimed at achieving a functional, aesthetic balance. When a toothless space has been maintained or recreated between the proximal teeth of each fragment, two solutions are at hand for the expert odontologist: implantology, or traditional joint prosthesis. Four problems are evoked here to describe the difficulties related to this therapeutic decision: confrontation of the banks, residual osseous defect, teeth bordering the cleft, and the odontologist's role in the overall responsibility for the patient. The choice of the final surgical and prosthetic context induces a multifactor analysis, and must be integrated early on, as part of a multidisciplinary therapeutic strategy. Psychological acceptance is thereby favored, along with the rational search for a durable, aesthetic result.