Treatment of Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate Patient With Intraoral Tooth Tissue Borne Distractor and Facemask Therapy: A Case Report

This case report demonstrates the successful use of intraoral distractor/hygenic rapid expander (HYRAX) for rapid maxillary expansion in anteroposterior direction with an adjunctive use of face mask therapy for anterior orthopedic traction of maxillary complex in a cleft patient with concave profile. The patient was a 13-year-old girl who reported with a chief complaint of backwardly positioned upper jaw and a severely forward positioned lower jaw. Therefore, a treatment was chosen in which acrylic bonded rapid maxillary expansion was done with tooth tissue borne intraoral distractor/HYRAX having a different activation schedule along with Dr Henri Petit facemask to treat maxillary retrognathism. As a result, crossbite got corrected and attained a positive jet with no bone loss in cleft area over a period of 5 months which was followed by fixed mechanotherapy achieving a well settled occlusion in 1 year. After completion of expansion and fixed mechanotherapy, ANB became +1 post-treatment which was −4 pretreatment. The prognathic profile was markedly improved by expansion and taking advantage of the remaining growth potential, thus minimizing the chances of surgery later in life. This provided a viable alternative to orthognathic surgery with good long-term stability.