Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the human nasal bone length in newborns and male adults with cleft lip (CL), cleft palate (CP), and unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) and to compare the results to previous findings in prenatal material.
Design: This study was a radiographic profile cephalometric cross-sectional analysis.
Subjects and methods: Profile radiographs from 60 newborns with a male-to-female ratio of 1:1 in each group (20 CL, 20 CP, and 20 UCLP) and 60 male adults (20 CL, 20 CP, and 20 UCLP) were randomly selected among radiographs, taken for optimizing the treatment planning. The nasal bone lengths (n-na) were measured with a digital caliper on the profile radiographs. To compare the nasal bone lengths in the different cleft groups, Student's t tests at a significant level at 5% were performed.
Results: Nasal bone length was significantly shorter in male adult patients with CL compared with patients with CP. Furthermore, the nasal bone length was significantly shorter in newborns with CL (2 months) compared to newborns with UCLP (2 months). A borderline significance was seen in the comparison of patients with CL and UCLP in male adults. There was no significant difference in the nasal bone length between the patients with CP and UCLP, in either the newborns or the male adults.
Conclusions: Nasal bone length was significantly shorter in subjects with CL compared with subjects in whom the palate was clefted. The results show that the clefted lip in CL is associated with a subjacent skeletal deviation in the upper midface.