Frontal cephalometric evaluation of transverse dentofacial morphology and growth of children with isolated cleft palate

The transverse dentofacial morphology and growth of 64 children operated on for clefting of the hard and soft palate was studied by means of a frontal proportional cephalometric analysis and was compared to a normal sample at the ages 3 – 4, 8 – 9 and 12 years. The cross-sectional comparison of the cleft palate and normal samples at the three periods indicated: (a) The presence in the cleft group of significantly increased ratios of the inner orbital width to the interorbital width and of the width of the nasal cavity to the interorbital width; (b) the absence of any significant differences in the ratio of the maxillary intermolar width to the interorbital width; and (c) the presence of almost identical ratios of the intergonial width of the mandible to the interorbital width and of the width of the maxilla to the intergonial width of the mandible. Evaluation of the changes of all cephalometric variables during the period 8 – 12 years showed the absence of any significant difference between the cleft palate and normal groups.