Introduction, prevalence, etiopathology, diagnosis and management. A complete guide.

2. Congenital abnormal space or gap in the upper
lip, alveolus and palate

3. More common in south far Asians:
 1 in 500
Less frequent in Africans:
 1 in 2000
Prevalence in Europeans and Americans:
 1 in 750
Prevalence in Pakistan1
:
 1 in 523
1. Elahi MM, Jackson IT, Elahi O, Khan AH, Mubarak F, Tariq GB, Mitra A. Epidemiology of cleft lip and
cleft palate in Pakistan. Otolaryngol Clin North Am. 2007 Feb; 40(1):27-60.

4. Male to female ratio – 3 : 2
Cleft Lip and Palate are twice as common in
boys as in girls
Isolated Clefts of Palate are more common in
girls
75% of Clefts are Unilateral, rest are Bilateral
Left side is more frequently involved

5. The medial nasal swellings
enlarge, grow medially and
merge with each other in
the midline to form the
intermaxillary segment
Human embryo: 7 weeks

7. Kernahan “Striped Y”
Millard Modification of Kernahan “Striped Y”
Kriens “LAHSHAL”

8. Kernahan “Striped Y”
Lip
Alveolus
Primary Palate
Hard Palate
Hard Palate
Soft Palate

9. Millard Modification of Kernahan “Striped Y”

10. Kriens “LAHSHAL”
 Capital letter = complete cleft
 Lowercase letter = incomplete cleft
 “.” or “-” = normal
 Example:
 LA- - - - l = complete right cleft lip and alveolus,
incomplete left cleft lip

11. Microform Cleft:
 May look like
 a little dent in the red part of lip
 a scar from the lip up to nostril
 Muscle tissue underneath cleft can be affected
and may require surgery

12. Submucous Cleft Palate:
 Midline deficiency or lack of muscular tissue
 Often a submucous cleft palate is associated
with a bifid or cleft uvula
Posterior nasal spine is almost always missing
Speech problems are common

13. Transabdominal
Ultrasonography :
Reliable after 4th
month
Clefts of lip
Clefts of palate:
 Sagittal View
 Axial View
 Coronal View
Transvaginal
Ultrasonography
Three-dimensional
ultrasonography

14.  Advantages of Prenatal
Diagnosis:
1. Time for parental education
2. Time for parental psychological
preparation
3. Preparation for neonatal care
and feeding
4. Opportunity to investigate other
associated anomalies
5. Gives parents the choice of
continuing the pregnancy
6. Opportunity for fetal surgery

16. 8-9 Year:
 Initial interventional
Orthodontics
 Preparation for
alveolar bone grafting
10 Year:
 Alveolar Bone Grafts
12-14 Year:
 Definite Orthodontics
16 Year:
 Nasal Revision Surgery
17-20 Year:
 Orthognathic Surgery
Birth:
 Initial Assessment
 Pre-surgical assessment
3 Month:
 Primary Lip repair
9-18 month:
 Palate Repair
2 Year:
 Speech assessment
3-5 Year:
 Lip Revision Surgery

17.  Genetic Scientist
 Pediatrician
 Pedodontist
 Orthodontist
 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
 Prosthodontist
 ENT Surgeon
 Plastic Surgeon
 Psychiatrist
 Speech Therapist
 Social Worker

18. Feeding
Dental problems
Nasal Deformity and Esthetic Problems
Ear Problems
Speech Difficulties

19. Cleft lip
 Makes it more difficult for an infant to suck
Cleft Palate
 May cause milk to be accidently taken up into
nasal cavity
 Inability to create negative pressure inside oral
cavity
 Frequent regurgitations
 Upper respiratory tract infections

20. In Patient with Cleft lip
 Special nipples to allow baby to latch properly
Mead
Johnson/Enfamil
Cleft Feeder
Pigeon Feeder Dr. Brown’s Natural Flow
Special Needs Feeder /
Haberman Feeder

21. In patients with cleft
palate
 Avoid feeding without
palatal obturator
 Feeding in an upright
position

22. Local Dental Problems:
 Congenitally Missing teeth (Hypodontia, Oligodontia)
 Hyperdontia
 Presence of natal and neonatal teeth
 Abnormal tooth morphology (microdontia, macrodontia )
 Fused teeth
 Enamel Hypoplasia
 Gemination, Dilacerations
 Poor periodontal support
Orthodontics Problems:
 Class III tendency
 Anterior and Posterior Cross bite
 Spacing and crowding

23.  Facial Disfigurements
 Poor nasal shape
 Scar marks of surgeries
 Poor lip function during
speech
 Poor dental alignment and
smile

24. Middle ear disease - 22% to 88%
Conductive hearing loss and chronic
suppurative otitis media
Repeated tympanostomy tube placement

25. Abnormal curvature of eustachian tube lumen
Altered width and angulation of skull base
Abnormal insertions of the tensor and levator veli
palatini muscles into cartilages and skull base

26.  96% of children require
tympanostomy tube placement1
 50% of these children required
repeat tympanostomy tube
placement 1
 Frequency of otitis media
decreases as the child with CP
ages
 Audiology and tympanometry as
well as exams / clinical history
1
Muntz HR, An overview of middle ear disease in cleft palate children, Facial Plast Surg. 9
(1993) 177-180.

27. Hearing loss hampers proper development of
speech
Velopharyngeal Insufficiency (VPI)
Poor pronunciation of Bilabial, Labiodental,
Linguoalveolar sounds

28. Maxillary Strapping
Nasoalveolar Moulding Appliances (NAM)
Advantages:
1. Reduces the size of cleft; aids in surgery
2. Partial obturation aids in feeding
3. Parental reassurance at a crucial time

29. Indications of NAMs:
1. Large lip defect requiring presurgical
approximatiom
2. Severe deviations in nasal cartilages columella,
nasal tip, and lateral wall
3. Post surgical nasal molding and tension
reduction across suture line

31.  Premaxilla is extremely
protrusive
 Premaxilla and prolabium
can be of variable size
 Columella is deficient/almost
nonexistent
 Palatal shelves are collapsed
Bilateral Cleft Lip

32. Bilateral Cleft Lip
 Repositioning of protrusive
maxilla
 Support from intraoral
component
 Retention with
 Denture adhesive
 Elastic strap

33. • Time of surgery: approximately at10 weeks
“Rule of Ten”
 Child weighs 10 pounds
 Child has a hemoglobin of at least 10 grams/dl
 Child has a WBC count < 10 thousand
 Child is at least 10 weeks of age

34. Cleft Lip Repair
 Unilateral
 Millards’s rotation-advancement flap

35. Cleft Lip Repair
 Bilateral
 bilateral rotation advancement with attachment to
premaxilla mucosa

36. Dorf and Curtin1
 10% occurrence of articulation errors when
palatoplasty was completed by 1 year
 86% incidence of articulation errors when repair
was complete after 1 year
Haapanen and Rantala2
 Significantly fewer children in the groups repaired
before 18 months had hypernasal speech,
articulation errors, or required secondary surgery
to correct speech
1. Dorf DS, JW Curtin: Early cleft palate repair and speech outcome: A ten year experience. J Bardach
HL Morris Multidisciplinary Management of Cleft Lip and Palate. 1990 WB Saunders Philadelphia 341-
348.
2. Haapanen ML, Rantala SL. Correlation between the age at repair and speech outcome in patients
with isolated cleft palate. Scand J Plast Reconstr Surg Hand Surg. 1992;26(1):71-8.

37. 1. Schweckendick’s Primary Veloplasty
2. Von Langenbeck Palatal Repair
3. V-Y Pushback
4. Furlow Palatoplasty

38. 1. Schweckendick’s Primary Veloplasty
 Incisions made in soft palate
 Muscle bundles released from posterior hard
palate and rotated
 Reconstruction of levator sling
 Closure of mucosal layers separately

39. 2. Von Langenbeck Operation

40. V-Y Pushback (WARDILL OPERATION)
 Two uni-pedicled flaps (greater palatine artery)
raised
 Posterior flaps rotated in a V-Y advancement
 Improved speech results
 Indicated for incomplete clefts

41. V-Y Pushback (WARDILL OPERATION)

42. Furlow Palatoplasty
 Lengthens soft palate
 Reconstructs the muscle sling
 Used to correct velopharyngeal insufficiency
 Can be used for treatment of submucous clefts

44.  Aim: Prepare the dentition adjacent to cleft
for the secondary alveolar bone graft
 Avarge Duration: 6-12 months
 Appliances:
1. Bonded edgewise appliance
2. Supported with a maxillary expander quad
helix expander

45.  Use of Quadhelix to expand maxillary arch

46.  Use of Spider appliance to expand maxillary
arch

47.  Use of bonded edgewise appliance

48. Primary Bone Grafting
1. Bone graft done at the time of primary
cheiloplasty
2. Bone graft done during the first 2 years of life
3. Bone graft done prior to the eruption of the
primary canine

49. Secondary Bone Grafting
Done before eruption of the permanent canine
 In CLP dental age lags behind chronological
age
 Early bone graft: 2-5 years of age
 Intermediate bone graff: 6-15 years of age
 Late bone graph: 16 year and older

50. Advantages:
1. Provides bone for eruption and orthodontic
repositioning of teeth
2. Closure of oro-nasal fistulas
3. Support and elevation of alar base
4. Stabilization of pre-maxilla in bilateral cases
5. Establishing continuity of alveolar ridge

51. Autogenous
 Cancellous- iliac crest
 Cortical- calvarium, mandible
 Cortico-cancellous- iliac, rib, tibia, mandible
Allogeneic1
 Graft resorbs, remodels, may contribute to
osteoinduction and osteoconduction
Alloplast2
 Bone grows into, around alloplast
 No active osteoinduction but some osteoconduction
 Teeth do not erupt through alloplast
1. Nique T, Fonseca RJ, et al: Particulate allogeneic bone grafts into maxillary alveolar clefts in
humans- A preliminary report. J Oral Maxillofac Surg 45: 386-392, 1987.
2. Horswell BB, El Deeb M: Nonporous HA in the repair of alveolar cleft defect in a primate
model. J Oral Maxiilofac Surg 47:946-952, 1989.

56. Preoperative Post Operative

57. Preoperative Cleft
Defect
Postoperative Bone Graft

59. • Correction of anterior
crossbite
• Arch expansion
• Stability of results is
questionable
• Slower results as
compared to normal
subjects
Face mask therapy:

60. Late mandibular growth may aggravate
problems
Hypernasality may increase
Definitive dental prosthesis may be planned
Treatment planning
 Mild skeletal discrepancy: Dental compensations
 Moderate skeletal discrepancy: Orthognathic surgery
 Severe skeletal discrepancy: Distraction osteogenesis

61. Lefort I maxillary advancement
 Relapse after rigid fixation1
 Mean maxillary horizontal relapse of 20.5%
 Mean vertical relapse of 22.2% within first year
 Velopharyngeal insufficiency
1. Heliövaara A, Ranta R, Hukki J, Rintala A. Skeletal stability of Le fort I osteotomy in
patients with unilateral cleft lip and palate. Scand J Plast Reconstr Surg Hand Surg
2001;35:43-49.

62. Maxillary advancement with distraction
Osteogenesis

63. Midfacial Advancement
 Pretreatment Decompensation

64. Maxillary advancement with intraoral distractor

65. Pretreatment Postreatment

67. Maxillary advancement with Extraoral distractor

68.  Patients with a cleft lip and palate requirePatients with a cleft lip and palate require
highest standard ofhighest standard of multidisciplinary caremultidisciplinary care
 Management starts pre-natally after initialManagement starts pre-natally after initial
diagnosis, followed by a long treatment aimingdiagnosis, followed by a long treatment aiming
at restoration of oral health and function whileat restoration of oral health and function while
achieving optimum estheticsachieving optimum esthetics
 Right intervention at right timeRight intervention at right time can significantlycan significantly
improve the quality of lifeimprove the quality of life

71. Timing: 17-20 years of age
Standard techniques
 Tip projection
 Alar rotation
 Columellar lengthening

72. Goals of Surgery
1. Reducing the size of opening between oral
and nasal cavities
2. Reconnecting palatal muscles to restore
function
3. Restore the anatomical length of soft palate

73. Dorrance and Brown’s – U shaped push back
palatoplasty

74. Use of Pharyngeal flap

75. Posterior pharyngeal wall augmentation with
implants and injections