Evaluation of the effects of secondary alveolar bone grafting in both adults and children with cleft lip and palate.

The preliminary results in a prospective study to evaluate the effects of secondary alveolar bone grafting in adults and children with cleft lip and palate is presented. Bone grafting was performed in 67 patients using two different surgical approaches. Autogenous cancellous bone from the iliac crest was used in all the cases. The patients were divided into three groups according to the state of eruption of the canine and the age group, whether adult or children. The minimum period for observation of the cases following the bone grafting is three months, the maximum one and a half years. The initial findings indicated that better results were obtained when the bone grafting was done in younger patients prior to the eruption of the canine.