A review of speech function and maxillary growth in cleft palate patients

There are variations in methodology of palate repair in many cleft centres in the world. The aim of this systematic review is to describe speech function and maxillary growth outcome from various methodology of palate repair in cleft palate patients. Methods:Literature search was conducted in the electronic database Pubmed/Medline. The literature inclusion criteria were English written, and keywords were verified in MeSH. Boolean "AND" was used to specify the search. The keywords used in this study were speech, maxillary, growth, cleft, and palate. Ninety two papers were filtered from Pubmed, only twenty sixpapers fit the inclusions criteria. Twelve papers discussed the speech function and maxillary growth, 7 papers only discussed the speech function and 7 papers only discussed the maxillary growth. There are variations in technique, stages, and timingof palate repair in many cleft centres. The results revealed that early closure of the soft palate is favorable for speech function, whereas early closure of the hard palate can interfere the maxillary growth. Findings from this review conclude that in most cleft centres worldwide, a one-stage palate repair is preferable than the two-stage procedure. Further studies should be conducted to explore potential benefits of the two-stage palate repair in improving speech function and maxilary growth.