Soft tissue profile changes of reverse headgear treatment in Chinese boys with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate.

Midface retrusion in cleft lip and palate patients often results in personal, social, and psychological problems, along with the functional difficulty. Hence, soft tissue profile improvement in early childhood is of obvious importance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the soft tissue changes that occur during reverse headgear treatment in a homogeneous sample of Chinese boys born with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate. Boys with a similar congenital deformity and presenting similar skeletal morphology and maturity status were included for comparison. After 7.8 months of reverse headgear treatment, the soft tissue profile improved significantly as the concave tendency associated with maxillary deficiency decreased. The sagittal maxillomandibular lip relationship and the Holdaway angle increased significantly by 4.25 and 3.94 degrees, respectively.