Dentofacial relations in young adults with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate. A follow-up study.

A retrospective study was made on 30 patients born between 1958 and 1969 with unilateral complete cleft lip and palate (C-UCLP) and operated on at the Department of Plastic Surgery, University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden. All patients were operated on by the same surgeon. The results are based on data from records at 5, 10, 16 and 20 years of age. The facial morphology of the cleft children at 5 years of age was rather close to that of the normal children. During growth the faces became retrognathic, more visibly so in the maxilla resulting in straight or concave profiles. This was more evident among the boys. There were no differences regarding maxillary growth between children bone grafted at 10 to 16 years of age and those bone grafted after 16 years of age or not at all. Although surgical procedures and orthodontic treatment varied, 70% had less than 3 teeth in crossbite relationships at 20 years of age. An important factor to take into consideration is the fact that in addition to the influence that the cleft morphology and treatment have on the dentofacial growth, other dentofacial growth patterns also exist among the cleft patients. Generally the groups of patients reported are rather small and therefore conditions like these can have a strong influence on the results.