Predicting poor mid-face growth in children with a cleft lip & palate
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Predicting which children with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate will have poor mid-face growth using a data mining computational analysis of three-dimensional dental arch models of infants.
IRAS ID
225282
Contact name
Kelly Hard
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Birmingham Children's Hospital, Head of Research and Development
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
4068, Research Register UIN
Duration of Study in the UK
6 years, 3 months, 29 days
Research summary
About one in 700 babies born in the UK have a cleft lip and/or palate. In early pregnancy, some of the parts of the face don't fuse properly, resulting in a gap (cleft), which can affect the lip and roof of the mouth.
Despite better results for cleft children in recent years, 20% of cleft patients have poor facial growth. One reason is that there is something about the shape of the baby’s cleft influencing facial growth.
The failure of normal growth of the upper jaw means that the child appears to have a flat middle face, unusual speech, and the way the upper and lower teeth meet together means extra operations and braces on the teeth for longer. All this can cause an unhappy young person socially and emotionally.
The purpose of this study is to find patterns in the shape of the baby’s upper jaw that correlate with facial growth, using modern three-dimensional (3D) scanning technology.
This project will take a 3-D scan from the baby model of children with a cleft lip and palate treated in UK Cleft Centres between years 2000 and 2010. All these children have another model made when they are 5 years old. This model is measured by a National board as to how well the baby’s face is growing. This study will compare the shape of the baby’s model (by computer artificial intelligence) with the success of growth at age 5. This will help us predict the shape features that are associated with good or poor growth of the face.
The results in daily practice will help us explain the risk of poor growth and manage expectations with parents. It will also allow us to develop new techniques for earlier treatment of poor facial growth and more personalised care for individual children.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0536
Date of REC Opinion
19 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion