Orthodontic treatment of the patients with complete cleft lip alveolus and palate. The lessons over the past 60 years.

This review paper summarizes 60 years of progress in the orthodontic care of patients with complete clefts of the lip, alveolus, and palate. The progress and evolution of orthodontic treatment for patients with complete clefts has taken a slow and sometimes circuitous route to present-day standards. Nonetheless, in spite of this history of slow and inefficient scientific and clinical progress, review of the literature of the past 60 years does, in fact, reveal that progress has been made. This progress has not only been in the area of improved surgical and orthodontic techniques but also relative to the scientific weaknesses of past decades. The investigations of more recent years seem to be moving in a direction of better documentation, stricter methodologies, longer-term follow-up, larger sample sizes, etc. However, there remains much work to be done. Only by adopting a more critical approach will protocols be defined that can achieve optimal outcomes, while minimizing the burden of the orthodontic treatment through elimination of superfluous intervention.