Intraoral photographs for rating dental arch relationships in unilateral cleft lip and palate

Background and Purpose: The Goslon Yardstick is one of the most commonly used methods to assess dental arch relationships of patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate. This system was originally applied to dental casts. For reasons of economy and convenience, we aimed to determine whether intraoral photographs could substitute for dental casts for rating dental arch relationships. Methods: Records of 58 patients with nonsyndromic complete unilateral cleft lip and palate from the Chang Gung Craniofacial Center, Taipei, Taiwan, were used in this study. A set of dental casts and digital intraoral photographs taken at around 9 years of age were available for all patients. An experienced examiner rated the dental casts using the Goslon Yardstick to provide the reference scores. The other three examiners rated the intraoral photographs and repeated the rating 1 week later to calculate inter- and intraexaminer reliability. The photographic scores for each examiner were then compared with the reference scores to determine the validity of the photographs. Results: The results showed no significant difference between the rating of dental casts and photographs using the Goslon Yardstick. Reliability was also high for rating on photographs. Conclusions: Intraoral photographs appear to be a viable alternative to the application of the Goslon Yardstick on dental casts.