Background: Bone grafting of the cleft maxilla before
eruption of the permanent cuspid has become an accepted
part of the management of patients with clefts involving the
maxillary alveolus. The reasons for performing a bone graft
are to stabilize the maxillary segments and provide bony
support for the teeth adjacent to the cleft.
Objective: The aim of the present study is clinical and
radiographic evaluation of the outcome and efficacy of sticky
bone (mixture of autologous fibrin glue (AFG) and bovine
bone graft) as a bone substitute for the treatment of alveolar
cleft.
Patients and Methods: 41 patients with a total of 58
alveolar clefts, 17 bilateral and 24 unilateral clefts, treated
by alveolar bone grafts using sticky bone. Their age ranged
from 6 to 18 years with a mean of 11.6. The follow-up was
up to one year.
Results: From a total number of 58 alveolar clefts.
Adequate healing was resented in 47 of them [30 of them
were class I (51.7%) and 17 were class II (17%)]. Inadequate
bone healing occurred in 11 clefts [6 of them were class III
(10.3%) and 5 were class IV (8.6%)].
Conclusions: Bone grafting of alveolar clefts is a mandatory
step in the management of cleft lip and palate patients,
sticky bone could be considered as promising and effective
bony substitute and could be used efficiently for the treatment
of cleft alveolus as an alternative to autogenous bone grafts
to avoid harvesting bone of the patient and its complications
and the earlier the grafting producers are done, the better
quality of grafted bone.