Cephalometric analyses of the correlation between nasal and maxilla morphology among adult patients with cleft.

OBJECTIVE

To explore if the nasal profile is influenced by maxillary hypoplasia among patients with congenital cleft lip and palate.

METHODS

Young adult patients with cleft and noncleft controls were enrolled. Nasal and maxillary profiles were measured on lateral cephalometric radiographs. The Kruskal-Wallis and Tukey post-hoc tests were employed for intergroup comparison among various the cleft types, and Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients were calculated to detect the correlation between nasal and maxillary cephalometric measurements.

RESULTS

A total of 250 participants were enrolled, including 64 with unilateral cleft lip and alveolae; 22 with bilateral cleft lip and alveolae; 49 with unilateral cleft lip, alveolae, and palate; 35 with bilateral cleft lip, alveolae, and palate; and 80 controls. Patients with cleft demonstrated significant difference in nasal and maxillary profiles when compared with the normal controls. The nasal dorsum length had a significant positive correlation with anterior and posterior maxillary height. The upper nasal dorsum length had a significant negative correlation with the maxillary protrusion. Among patients with bilateral cleft, the nasal dorsum length was also significantly negatively correlated with the maxillary protrusion.

CONCLUSION

The nasal profile is closely related to the growth of maxillae among patients with cleft and the normal population.