The Goslon Yardstick Applied to a Consecutive Series of Patients with Unilateral Clefts of the Lip and Palate

First described in 1987, the Goslon yardstick has been used since as a reliable and reproducible means of measuring dental arch relationships and, therefore, the quality of facial growth. The dental study models of a group of 32 consecutively treated patients with unilateral clefts of lip and palate, from the Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, U.K., were analyzed using the Goslon yardstick. More than 50% of the sample were in the unfavorable Goslon groups IV and V. Because of these results, we at Frenchay Hospital now base our related surgical procedures on the early vomerine closure of the anterior hard palate without nasal or alveolar repair at 3 months, followed by primary hard and soft palate closure at 6 months.