Milestones in congenital cleft palate craft

A historical review is made of the various concepts involved in the treatment of congenital palate. For centuries, it was belived that cleft palates were the result of syphilis or some infectious process: at that time, no surgery was attempted and obturators were used. In the first part of the 19th century, the first attempts were made to close surgically the soft palate and some time later also the hard palate. The speech anormalies which were not improved by the first types of operation and the study of speech mechanism led the surgeons to devise more sophisticated procedures to lengthen the soft palate or to the secure the soft palate to the pharyngeal wall in order to overcome the palatopharyngeal insufficiency