Prepubertal midface growth in unilateral cleft lip and palate following alveolar molding and gingivoperiosteoplasty.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the long-term effect of nasoalveolar molding and gingivoperiosteoplasty (modified Millard type) on midface growth at prepuberty.

PROCEDURES

In this retrospective study, 20 consecutive patients with a history of complete unilateral cleft lip and palate were evaluated. Ten patients had nasoalveolar molding and gingivoperiosteoplasty performed at lip closure; 10 control patients had nasoalveolar molding but no gingivoperiosteoplasty because of late start in treatment or poor compliance. A single surgeon (C.B.C.) performed all surgical procedures. Standardized lateral cephalometric radiographs were evaluated at two time periods: T1 at pre-bone-grafting age and T2 at prepuberty age. Superimposition and cephalometric analysis were undertaken to investigate the two groups. Two cephalometric reference planes, sella-nasion and basion-nasion, were used to assess the vertical and sagittal relations of the midface (ANS-PNS). The reference landmarks were procrustes fitted. The mean location and variance of ANS and PNS landmarks were computed. All results were analyzed by permutation test.

RESULTS

No significant difference in mean location or variance of ANS-PNS in both vertical and sagittal planes at both T1 and T2 periods were found between the two groups (p > .05).

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggested that midface growth in sagittal or vertical planes (up to the age of 9 to 13 years) were not affected by presurgical alveolar molding and gingivoperiosteoplasty (Millard type).