Retrospective Evaluation of Craniofacial Growth of Japanese Children with Isolated Cleft Palate: From Palatoplasty to Adolescence

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to analyze the craniofacial growth in women with an isolated cleft palate, to compare their matured craniofacial form with that of women with normal occlusion, and to survey the factors that influenced the matured craniofacial morphology of the adults with cleft palate during their growth process. Eighteen women with nonsyndromic isolated cleft palate were chosen from patients who received a palatoplasty at the Kyushu University Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan. Their lateral cephalometric radiographs were taken longitudinally from palatoplasty to adolescence. Fifty women with normal occlusion were chosen as controls. From their lateral cephalographs, linear and angular variables were calculated using the x,y coordinates of 20 skeletal landmarks. Maxillary length was shorter and the nasomaxillary complex was positioned more posteriorly in relation to the anterior cranial base of the adults with isolated cleft palate, compared with the controls. The mandible was shorter and was rotated inferiorly and posteriorly. However, remarkable deviation from the average craniofacial growth pattern was not recognized from palatoplasty to adolescence. The factors that influenced the craniofacial growth in the subjects with cleft palate were the forward growth of the A point from 2 to 5 years of age, the downward growth of the Ba point, the anterior upper facial height N-Ans in puberty, and the vertical position of the point Ba at the time of palatoplasty. This study provided evidence of the growth tendency and the factors influencing the intermaxillary relationship in subjects with isolated cleft palate. These are significant for orthodontic treatment planning.