Effects of reverse headgear treatment on sagittal correction in girls born with unilateral complete cleft lip and cleft palate--skeletal and dental changes.

Patients with cleft lip and cleft palate often develop maxillary retrognathism. This is due to the combined effects of the congenital deformity and surgical repairs. Early protraction of the maxilla with extraoral forces helps to achieve more balanced skeletal harmony and favorable occlusion for future growth to occur. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the proportion of the skeletal and dental changes contributing to the improvement in a group of Southern Chinese girls born with unilateral complete cleft lip and cleft palate treated by the reverse headgear. This study only focused on treating a homogenous sample group, i.e., only girls with unilateral complete cleft lip and cleft palate. This design was deliberate so as to avoid having boys and girls with various types of cleft all pooled together for analyses as seen in most of the previous reports. In addition, comparison was made with girls matched in having a similar deformity, presenting a similar skeletal structure and maturity status to reveal the genuine treatment effect. The 9.7 months of reverse headgear treatment improved the sagittal jaw relationship (p < 0.01) and overjet (p < 0.01), which was effected by about two-thirds skeletal and one-third dental changes.