Personal technique for primary repair of alveolar clefts.

From 1969, the senior author (H.B.) has developed a technique for the repair of alveolar clefts during primary cheiloplasty at patient age of 3 months. The operation used palatally hinged mucoperiosteal flaps from the edges of the cleft to reconstruct the posterior and inferior walls of the alveolar box. The roof was reconstructed by repairing the nasal floor, and the anterior wall was reconstructed using a buccal mucosal flap from the undersurface of the lateral lip segment. Fourteen operated patients were selected to scientifically follow the long-term results of the technique. The results indicated restoration of the arch form, varying degrees of ossification in the repaired alveolar box, and eruption of canines through the repaired alveolus. One case of anterior cross-bite was observed in these selected cases. However, a limited cross-bite was present at the site of the repaired cleft in many cases.