**2. Dental development and eruption in CLP patients**

### **2.1 Methods in assessing dental development**

There are several methods that have been devised for assessing dental development or calculating dental age [4–12]. Essentially, tooth development is observed from radiographs and compared with the formation stages in each system. Some systems allow dental age to be calculated after ascertaining the teeth formation stages.

Of the various systems available, the method proposed by Demirjian et al. [9] and Demirjian and Goldstein [12] has been well researched and was found to be highly accurate and precise for estimation of dental age, particularly during early childhood [13, 14]. For any method of age estimation, it is best established within population-specific groups to reduce confounders [15].
