Unilateral Cleft Lip Palate (Types)

Figure liki_3a_n.jpg: Newborn with a total cleft lip palate of the right side. Both parts of the lip and of the alveolus are wide apart. There is an asymmetry due to the displacement of the premaxillary and of the preserved left alveolus and lip to the left. Besides a hypoplasia of the right wing of the nose on the side of the cleft, the imbalance of the mimic muscles (absent insertion of the nasolabial muscles at the cleft side) plays an important role for the deformity (notice oblique position of the nasal septum). There is an asymmetrical cleft palate of the midline, e.g. to the right from the front to the back and to the left only in the posterior part; the red ridge with a whitish coating corresponds to the vomer which deviates in the sagittal plain. Figure liki_3b_n.jpg: Similar case of a newborn with a right cleft lip palate. Notice the broad cleft palate above the middle of the surface of the tongue, the large distance of the cleft alveolus, and its inadequate arrangement. Isolated cleft lips have multiple variations of very slight forms, such as in figure liki_4a_n.jpg: A right lip with a notch, up to partial and subtotal forms (with/without intact floor of the nose) as in figure liki_4b_n.jpg: A left partial cleft lip. Notice that inspite of the moderate form of cleft the nose is already involved.