background: current methods of closure of the cleft palate result in the formation of scars and impairment of growth. distraction osteogenesis (do) might be an effective means to repair or at least reduce the size of wide clefts. this study investigates the biomechanical aspects of this process. materials and methods: do simulation was applied to reduce the size of a unilateral hard palate clef...

Cleft palate is a common congenital birth defect in humans. In mammals, the palatal tissue can be distinguished into anterior bony hard palate and posterior muscular soft palate that have specialized functions in occlusion, speech or swallowing. Regulation of palate development appears to be the result of distinct signaling and genetic networks in the anterior and posterior regions of the palat...

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is the most common type of malignant neoplasm in the minor salivary gland. The hard palate is a frequently involved site of MEC. The treatment of low-grade MEC on the hard palate is wide local resection with a tumor-free margin. In the present case, the maxillary defect was reconstructed using a buccal fat pad (BFP) flap, followed by application of 4-hexylresorcin...

The human hard palate shows between-subject variation that is known to influence articulatory strategies. In order to link such variation to human speech, we are conducting a cross-sectional MRI study on multiple populations. A model based on Bezier curves using only three parameters was fitted to hard palate MRI tracings using evolutionary computation. The fits produced consistently yield high...