Comparative evaluation of cranial base and facial morphology of cleft lip and palate patients with normal individuals in cone beam computed tomography.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to compare the cranial base and facial morphology of cleft lip and palate (CLP) patients with individuals with no cleft.
METHODS: Thirty-two adult individuals including 9 patients without cleft, 14 patients with unilateral CLP, and 9 patients with bilateral CLP participated in the study. The average age of participants was 18.71 ± 2.1 years. Full skull cone-beam computed tomography of all of the participants was taken. Anatomic landmarks were traced in the midsagittal, coronal, and axial planes, and craniofacial height and width-related parameters were compared among the 3 groups. Analysis of variance and Tukey test were used for comparison. P < 0.05 was considered as significant.
RESULTS: SNA (P = 0.048), SNB (P = 0.005), S-N-Pog (P = 0.007), N-ANS (P = 0.013), and the distance between the most superior points of the external auditory meatus (P = 0.01) were significantly decreased in bilateral CLP compared with the control group. Similarly, SNB (P = 0.013) and S-N-Pog (P = 0.008) were significantly smaller in unilateral cases compared with the controls. S-N to the palatal plane was significantly increased in both unilateral (P = 0.013) and bilateral (P = 0.00) cases compared with individuals with no cleft. However, S-N to the palatal plane significantly increased in bilateral cases compared with unilateral clefts (P = 0.028).
CONCLUSIONS: Based on the results of the current study, adult patients with CLP showed relatively distinctive morphological features in maxillofacial and cranial base regions. It seems that less dysmorphic characteristics are observed in transverse dimensions of the face and basicranium in both types of cleft. On the other hand, lateral cranial base is more affected by CLP compared with the middle basicranium.