September 2013

The Objective: To evaluate oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in non-syndromic patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CLP), in comparison to a general non-cleft population. Basic Research Design: Systematic review. A literature search was conducted to identify papers reporting on OHRQoL in cleft samples. Only studies with suitable control groups were included. From each included paper were extracted the study and sample characteristics and results. Main outcome measures: OHRQoL score. Results: Three papers were chosen according to the preset inclusion and exclusion criteria. All used an OHRQoL generic patient-reported questionnaire with evidence of a development and validation process, with responses recorded on a five-point scale. The results could not be combined for the purposes of meta-analysis due to lack of standardisation. In 2 of the 3 studies, the OHRQoL was found to be significantly lower in the cleft than in the non-cleft samples (in patients 8-18 or 18-65 years of age). The third study, based on a relatively small sample size, could not detect significant differences between cleft and non-cleft individuals. Conclusions: Based on the results of the few studies included in the present systematic review, non-syndromic patients with CLP tend to have a lower OHRQoL than a general non-cleft population. This seems to hold true both for children and adults. Key words: cleft lip; cleft palate; quality of life; questionnaire; self report; review, systematic