Application of buccal fat pads in pack palate relaxing incisions on maxillary growth: a clinical study.
OBJECTIVE
To observe the impact on maxillary growth of the use of buccal fat pads to pack palate relaxing incisions.


METHODS
We recruited 30 patients aged 3-4 years with a complete cleft palate. Half (15) of the patients underwent reparative surgery that entailed packing buccal fat pads into the bilateral raw bony surfaces and served as the experimental group. The remaining 15 patients underwent reparative surgery that entailed packing and fixing relaxing incisions with iodoform gauze and served as the control group. After a 5-year follow-up, the differences in data from X-ray cephalometry and upper dental models in the two groups were analyzed using the T test.


RESULTS
A significant difference (P < 0.05) in maxillary growth was observed between the two groups of children with cleft palate.


CONCLUSIONS
The results supported the use of buccal fat pads to pack relaxing incisions which led to improved maxillary development in patients with cleft palate.
Department of Stomatology, The Second People's Hospital of Shenzhen Shenzhen 518035, China ; The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University Shenzhen, China.
Min
M
Zhang
Department of Stomatology, The Second People's Hospital of Shenzhen Shenzhen 518035, China.
Xiaojie
X
Zhang
Department of Stomatology, The Second People's Hospital of Shenzhen Shenzhen 518035, China ; Shenzhen University School of Medicine Shenzhen 518040, China.
Cangshang
C
Zheng
Buccal fat pad; arch model; cephalometric analysis; maxillary development; relaxing incision