OBJECTIVETo classify the whistling deformities of the patients with bilateral cleft lip or bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate after primary cleft lip repair.

METHODSAccording to exposure degrees of the gum and the crown of the anterior upper incisors, 136 patients with whistling deformities after primary repair of bilateral cleft lip at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of Xiang Ya Hospital, Central South University were examined and the whistling deformities were classified into four grades. Grade I: the crowns of the left and the right upper incisors were exposed about one-second. Grade II: the whole crowns of the upper incisors were exposed or plus the exposure of the crowns of medial sagittal portion of the left and the right upper lateral incisors. Grade III: the whole crowns of two upper incisors and one-second of the attached gum of two upper incisors or the crowns and one-second of attached gum of the two upper incisors with over two-third of transverse crowns of the lateral incisors were exposed. Grade IV: the crowns and corresponding attached gum of the upper incisors and over two-third of medial sagittal crowns of the upper lateral incisors were exposed. The relation between the degrees of the whistling deformities and the primary procedures of the bilateral cleft lip or the bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate was analyzed.

RESULTSSixty patients (44.2 percent) had grade I whistling deformities; forty-seven patients (34.5 percent) were Grade II; 16 patients (11.8 percent) were Grade III; 13 cases (9.5 percent) were Grade IV. The results showed that grade I and grade II whistling deformities were obviously more (about 3.7 times) than grade IlI and grade IV whistling deformities.

CONCLUSIONSClassification of whistling deformities provided the objective basis for the selection of operation techniques of cleft lip.