Standardisation of cleft care--a technique for creating a three-dimensional model of the cleft lip, palate and nose

The Royal College of Surgeons Cleft Steering Group and the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland have recommended that, for patients with a cleft of the lip and/or palate, a model is made of the deformity before primary surgery. This provides a record for audit and can be used to compare the results of treatment. There is no standardisation in the way in which a model of the cleft deformity is made, which makes inter-unit comparison difficult. In this paper, we describe our technique for making a composite model of the cleft palate, lip and nose. This method is adaptable and quick to perform, and the models are easy to store.