Presurgical nasal moulding in a neonate with cleft lip.

The concept of presurgical nasoalveolar moulding (PNM) was developed to improve the aesthetic result of surgically corrected cleft lip. This paper presents the method of fabrication of PNM appliance and the case of a 30-day-old neonate with unilateral cleft lip in whom nasal moulding was performed. Treatment was initiated at 30 days and continued for 60 days after which the surgical correction of cleft lip was performed. Significant improvement in aesthetics and symmetry of the nose was achieved at the end of the treatment.