S. Park et al., THE PATTERN OF PALATAL RUGAE IN SUBMUCOUS CLEFT PALATES AND ISOLATED CLEFT PALATES, British Journal of Plastic Surgery, 47(6), 1994, pp. 395-399
The early diagnosis of submucous cleft palate is important. In childre
n too young to; tolerate nasendoscopy and videofluoroscopy the diagnos
is depends on the clinical history and intraoral examination. We have
studied the pattern of the hard palate rugae to investigate their poss
ible diagnostic significance. Maxillary dental casts were obtained fro
m 16 patients with submucous cleft palate, 17 patients with isolated c
lefts of the secondary palate, and 10 non-cleft controls. The hard pal
ate mucosa had a unique feature in 14 (87.5 %) of the submucous cleft
palates: one or more of the palate rugae curved towards the region of
the bony notch in the posterior border of the hard palate. The 2 cases
without this rugae pattern did not have a detectable bony notch. In 1
00 % of the isolated cleft palate cases, one or more of the rugae curv
ed towards the anterior end of the cleft. This feature was not seen in
any of the non-cleft controls. We consider this rugae pattern to be a
n additional diagnostic feature of submucous cleft palate.