Treatment goals in individuals with orofacial clefts: A literature review

Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is the most common congenital deformity of the orofacial. Team care is essential to meet the medical, surgical, dental, orthodontic, and psychological needs of individuals with cleft lip and palate. The currently accepted standards of care can only be met if the specialists work together in the diagnosis and treatment planning. Interdisciplinary team care provides the best overall outcomes for the individual and is also the most efficacious and cost-effective way of meeting the goals of treatment. In this review article, published 21 articles were reviewed between years (2000-2018), the electronic databases PubMed,Scopus and Google Scholar were searched. The following search terms were used: nasoalveolar molding, cleft lip and palate, team care, and multidisciplinary management, lip repair, orthognathic surgery.The goal of treatment is to restore esthetics and functional impairments associated with clefts. The nature and the extent of medical and dental problems among CLP patients dictate the need toward multidisciplinary approach where different medical and  dental specialists are involved in the treatment. The purpose of this article is to review  management of cleft lip and palate deformity from birth until adulthood. In this regard, feeding plates, nasoalveolar molding (NAM), lip and palate repair, palatal expansion, alveolar bone grafting, rhinoplasty, orthodontic treatment, and orthognathic surgery will be discussed.