Alveolar Backing in 3-Year-Old Children with and without Repaired Cleft Palate: Preliminary Findings Related to Cleft Type and History of Otitis Media.

The study was preliminary and had small groups: 10 children with complete cleft lip and palate, 9 with palate-only clefts, 12 with otitis media histories, and 8 typically developing children. Occlusal and maxillary arch form were not measured, so the study cannot show that maxillary collapse caused the backing. The complete cleft lip and palate group was assessed before orthodontics and alveolar bone grafting, so findings do not describe speech after those treatments. Spectral measures used only four /t/ words, four /s/ words, three /k/ words, and three /ʃ/ words, and did not control for singleton versus cluster or word position. The speech-language pathologist scoring articulation was not blinded to cleft status. Spectral data were obtained by two research assistants at different time points, and intra-reliability data were not reported. Multiple ANOVAs were not adjusted for multiple comparisons because of the preliminary design. Sex was not balanced across groups.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. No funding source or sponsor role is reported.

Do not conclude that palatal backing in children with repaired complete cleft lip and palate is caused by maxillary collapse or that speech therapy will correct it. This was a small preliminary study, and it did not measure arch form or test treatment.