The relationship between lip pressure following lip repair and craniofacial growth: an experimental study in beagles.

In the present study with beagles, various states of lip pressure (decreased and increased) following surgical creation of the lip and palatal defects and subsequent lip repair were found to be significantly related to craniofacial growth aberrations and disproportions. These aberrations are discussed in terms of an imbalanced functional skeletal-soft-tissue matrix. Significantly elevated lip pressure following lip repair in group III animals was found to be more detrimental to craniofacial growth than decreased lip pressure resulting from the surgical creation of a defect left unrepaired. Results of the study present, for the first time, documented evidence of a significant relationship between lip pressure following lip repair and craniofacial growth. Caution should be employed in extending these conclusions to the clinical setting, yet the findings underscore the need for well-controlled clinical studies designed to assess the influence of cleft lip repair on craniofacial growth.