CLASSIFICATIONS OF CLEFT LIP AND CLEFT PALATE

Classification for cleft lip and palate is important for both clinical research and epidemiological investigation and also plays an important role in diagnosis and planning the treatment. Classifications of cleft lip and palate deformities have seen an ocean of changes each with a different basis for classification ranging from anatomic and embryologic considerations to the complexity of the deformity. Many newer approaches have also used mathematical expressions to provide a complete description of the deformity including those which can be used for computerized data analysis. This book gives a bird's eye view on the review of past and the most recent classifications and also gives a better understanding of how improvements/advancements in the field have led to a better representation of the various types of cleft deformities.