What is alveolar bone grafting?
A child with a cleft palate may need surgery after the first cleft palate repair to replace missing bone in the front and the roof of the mouth. The alveolus is the bony part of the upper jaw and lower jaw that contains the teeth. Placing bone in this area is called alveolar cleft bone grafting. This involves taking a small amount of bone from one place (most often the hip) and placing it in the area of the cleft near the teeth. This gives the teeth, which may not have come in yet, a stable support to come through. There is also added support and an improved contour if a bridge is needed to fill in missing teeth. Before surgery The best results of alveolar bone grafting are achieved by widening the upper jaw before the graft is placed. This most often makes the hole bigger, but provides better access for the surgeon. The widening of the upper jaw is most often done using fixed orthodontic braces or a palate expander. Most often this brace is a quadhelix. These are used for about 6-9 mo
