Evaluation of bite force in patients with cleft lip and palate and its comparison with normal patients

Abstract

Aim and Objectives: This in vivo cross-sectional study aimed to measure and correlate the average and maximum bite forces between cleft and noncleft individuals. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on thirty cleft and thirty noncleft lip and palate patients who were belonging to the age group of 14–30 years with unrepaired unilateral cleft lip and palate under treatment at the Craniofacial Center, Yenepoya Dental College, Mangalore, and G. S. R Craniofacial Center, Hyderabad, India. Dental Prescale® sheet was used to record the bite force of the patients and the test sheet was scanned with an Epson v330 color HD photo scanner, and the bite force was evaluated by an FDP 8010 analyzing system. The data were analyzed statistically by the Student's data t-test. Results: The control group had a statistically significantly higher mean pressed area on the left side (P = 0.034), maximum pressure on the left side (P < 0.001), mean maximum pressure on the right side (P = 0.024), and mean average pressure on the left side (P = 0.038). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean pressed area on the right side (P = 0.569) and average pressure on the right side of the control and study groups (P = 0.358). Conclusions: There was a statistically significant difference in the mean maximum pressure (P = 0.001) and average pressure (P = 0.039) among cleft lip and palate patients when compared with that of the control group. There was no significant difference between male and female subjects of both the groups.

Keywords

• bite force
• cleft lip
• cleft palate
• dental prescale®
• occlusal forces
• orthodontics