A study on morphology of bilateral cleft lip

Abstract

Twenty-five facial plaster models of three or four-month-old unoperated infants with bilateral cleft lip and palate (complete, incomplete, and mixed bilateral cleft lip) were measured in respect to several key-points of the lip, nose and eye. The contral sample of ten models was chosen by random selection from the normal infants with the same age as the cleft cases. The results were as follows.
(1) The distance b etween the entokanthion was longer in the bilateral cleft lip than the normal (hypertelorism).
(2) T he sideward deviation of the measured points of the bilateral cleft lip was remarkable, especially the transversal width, but the symmetry of the both sides of the face was good. The deviation of the nose tip, columella base, and mid-point of the cupid's bow were very small expect for the mixed bilateral cleft lip which was the same morphology as the unilateral cleft lip.
(3) The deviation of the bilateral cleft lip from the normal in term s of the vertical length of the measured points was little.
(4) The antero- p osterior deviation of the columella base and the mid-point of the cupid's bow of the bilateral cleft lip were very prominent due to the protrusion of the premaxilla.
(5) The height (anter-posterior direction) of the nose tip of the bilater al cleft lip was not different from the normal, but always gave the impression of saddle nose. It might be suggested that the forward displacement of the columella base, mid-point of the cupid's bow, and cheek made the nose relatively low in appearance.