Dental treatment of predental and infant patients with clefts and craniofacial anomalies

Children with cleft lip and/or palate differ in facial morphology and dentition from normal noncleft children. This paper reviews the current understanding of early dento-maxillary development in children with palatal clefts and the role of presurgical orthopedic treatment prior to primary palatal surgery. Finally, shortcomings of previous approaches to studying the outcome of treatment are presented, with a challenge to reevaluate how success is measured in the new millennium.