Facial Cleft and Pierre Robin Sequence

A typical facial cleft can be labial, labio-maxillary (unilateral or bilateral), labio-maxillary-palatal (unilateral or bilateral), or isolated palatal. We may also find a bilateral labial cleft or a labial cleft with a partial palatal cleft. They correspond to the Tessier 2 classification, and we will not describe the other types of Tessier clefts (1–14) which are much less common (Tessier, J Maxillofac Surg 4:69–92, 1976,[1]). Depending on the type of cleft and the age of the child, feeding, speech, and ear-nose-throat (ENT), dental, orthodontic, esthetic, and also psychological problems will be present (Malek, Classification and anatomo-clinical forms, in: Malek, ed., Lesions, pathophysiology and primary treatment cleft and lip palate, Martin Dunitz, London, 2000, pp. 17–26, [2]).