Variations of the isolated cleft of the hard palate.

A retrospective study was undertaken of 3100 facial cleft cases in order to analyse and determine the incidence of the isolated cleft of the hard palate. This presented as a very rare occurrence in three different variations, each having specific clinical appearances. The literature search revealed three publications each describing a single isolated hard palate cleft. However, these publications described hard palate clefts witnessed with other additional submucosal clefts or due to infection of the hard palate. They differ, in most cases, from the development and appearances of the clefts described in this paper. This single paper describes 13 cases, demonstrating the three variations of the isolated cleft of the hard palate.