Frontal cephalometric study of dentofacial morphology in children with bilateral clefts of lip, alveolus and palate

The transverse dentofacial morphology of 36 children with bilateral cleft lip, alveolus and palate was studied by means of a frontal proportional cephalometric analysis at the ages of three, eight and twelve years. Comparison of the variables of the cleft group was made with the normal dimensions as obtained from the Bolton cephalometric templates. The results indicated that the BCLP group presented characteristics and significant differences from the normal in the dimensions of the nasal septum width and the mandibular intergonial width as they are both related to the interorbital width, the maxillary intermolar width as it is related to the mandibular intermolar width and the maxillary width as it is related to the mandibular intergonial width at all three ages. The maxillary base and intermolar widths, although significantly different at the ages of three and eight years, showed no significant deviation from normality at the age of twelve years. Following orthodontic treatment between the ages of seven to twelve years, the maxillary intermolar width of the treated subgroup was significantly larger than in the untreated subjects.