Australian Dental Journal 2007;52:4. 315

Bacteria and salivary profile of adolescents with and without cleft lip and/or palate undergoing orthodontic treatment LL Cheng, * SL Moor, † O Kravchuk, ‡ IA Meyers, * CTC Ho* Background: Patients with cleft lip and/or palate (CL&/P) experience a higher caries prevalence. This study aimed to determine if patients with CL&/P, undergoing and not undergoing orthodontic treatment, have a different salivary biochemical profile and different salivary levels of Mutans Streptococci (MS) and Lactobacilli (LB) compared to patients undergoing and not undergoing orthodontic treatment without CL&/P. Methods: One hundred and ten subjects aged between 12 and 17 years were recruited into one of four different groups comprising two control groups and two treatment groups. The control groups comprised of subjects with and without CL&/P who were not undergoing orthodontic treatment. The treatment groups comprised of subjects with and without CL&/P undergoing orthodontic treatment. Regular reinforcement of oral hygiene instructions, dietary counselling and debridement, when necessary, were offered to subjects in the treatment groups following their orthodontic adjustment appointments. The salivary secretion time, pH of resting and stimulated saliva, salivary flow rate, buffering capacity, quantity of salivary MS and LB were measured. Results: Subjects with CL&/P undergoing orthodontic treatment at the Children’s Oral Health Service tended to present with microbiological and salivary profiles that were less favourable for caries development. There was a significant difference in the percentage of subjects with 105 colony forming units (CFU)/mL of MS between the cleft treatment and non-cleft treatment groups. Subjects in the non-cleft treatment group had the highest percentage of subjects (86.7 per cent) with 105 CFU/mL of MS whereas subjects in the cleft treatment group had the lowest percentage of subjects (60 per cent) with ≥105 CFU/mL of MS. For LB, there were significantl