Changes in bone remodeling after palatal surgery

It is generally well known that an infant with a cleft palate will have facial underdevelopment after corrective surgery. In such a case, we can suppose that the internal remodeling of the facial bone becomes abnormal postoperatively. The purpose of this study was to observe the changes in palatal bone remodeling after palatal surgery and the external bone growth inhibition using the microradiography and hard tissue labeling method. In this investigation we had 4 experimental groups and used large undecalcified ground sections to observe the whole palatal bone. Our experiments showed that the changes resulting from surgery include not only external bone growth inhibition, but also considerable abnormal remodeling in the interior of the bone. When the mucoperiosteum was removed, the changes continued to occur for an especially long period.