CL/CP is the most common and immediately recognizable craniofacial anomalies. The infant may have a cleft that is a unilateral, bilateral and it may involve the lip only, the palate only, or both. Cleft lip and/or palate are often isolated nonsyndromic; however, 10% of all infants with CL/CP will also have an associated syndrome.

Concept of presurgical orthopedic cleft molding was developed to improve the esthetic result of lip repair, helps provide a more coalescent cleft and an ideally shaped alveolar arch form and this, in turn, diminishes tension during the primary surgery, making scar formation more difficult and may produce more favorable bone formation.

One of the most recent pre-surgical Orthodontic management of CL/CP is Nasoalveolar molding which is nonsurgical, passive method to actively mold and reposition the deformed nasal cartilages and alveolar processes and to lengthen the deficient columella prior to the primary lip and nasal surgery