Roles of Palatine Bone Denudation Repairing With Free Buccal or Palatal Mucosal Graft on Maxillary Growth

Abstract

Most surgical repairs of cleft palate result in areas of bone denudation on lateral aspects of the hard palate. The present study was designed to investigate growth patterns of the maxilla following palatal bone denudation covering with free buccal or palatal mucosal graft in rabbits with surgically created defects simulating palatal bone denudation. Forty-five purebred New Zealand rabbits were used in this experiment. The animals were divided into 3 groups: 1 control group (left palatal bone denudation was not repaired and the right side was unoperated as a control) and 2 experimental groups (the right side of palatal bone denudation was covered with free buccal or palatal mucosal graft, respectively, and the left side was not repaired). Nineteen metric cranial variables were measured directly from the cleaned skulls. Direct cephalometric measurements were taken in the following dimensions: maxillary length, width and height, posterior facial width, and nasal deflection. Significant differences were noted between 2 sides of maxilla in all animals for the 19 cephalometric measurements. The cephalometric measurements of the right side in maxillary length, height, and width were significantly greater than those in the left side. There was no statistically significant difference between free buccal mucosal graft repaired group and free palatal mucosal graft repaired group for the cephalometric measurements. There was also no statistically significant difference for the cephalometric measurements between the 3 groups. The results of this study demonstrate that palatal bone denudation repaired by free buccal or palatal mucosal graft might prevent maxillary deformity following cleft palate surgery.