Orthodontic Therapy of Patients with Cleft Palate

The paper presents a brief survey of introducing orthodontia into the complex therapeutic protocol in interdisciplinary treatment of patients with cleft palate anomalies of orofacial system. It summarizes approaches and possibilities of orthodontic intervention indifferent periods of time including less frequent pre-surgical jaw-orthopedic preparation before primary surgical correction of the lip defect. The authors also present the reasons leading toindication of early orthodontic therapy with active or passive orthopedic device in the period of temporary dentition. Attention is drawn to the obstacles during pubertal growth spurt, whenan insufficient growth of the affected jaw may results in relapses and the disproportion of splanchnocranium is in full play. In the period of permanent teeth the basic problem is to decide about the final prosthetic, possibly the surgical-prosthetic reconstruction of dentition and adequate orthodontic preparation by means of fixed devices, which represent an almost absolute indication in this phase of complex therapy. One of perspective solutions is also to fill in the alveolus defect with a osteoplasty and reconstruction of dentition by means of implants.

Keywords: cleft palate; early orthodontic therapy; osteoplasty; dental implant