A Novel Classification of Relationship Between Nasal Septum and Inferior Turbinate Associated With Nasal Airway Obstruction in Patients With Unilateral Alveolar Cleft

OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate nasal morphologies associated with nasal airway obstruction in unilateral alveolar cleft patients. METHODS A total of 234 unilateral alveolar cleft cases were performed cone beam computed tomography scans. The digital imaging and communication in medicine data were imported into Simplant Pro software. The radiographic features including nasal septum deviation and inferior turbinate hypertrophy as well as nasal airway volume and sinusitis were analyzed. RESULTS A new radiographic classification of relationship between nasal septum and inferior turbinate (NS-IT) on the cleft side was proposed and three types of NS-IT relationship (type I, II and III) were identified in 234 cases. The statistical analysis revealed that the nasal airway volume on non-cleft side was significantly higher than that on cleft side in each of three types (P