The use of hyaluronic acid in individuals with cleft lip and palate: Literature review

TL;DR

This literature review examines the use of hyaluronic acid as a facial filler for correcting lip scars in cleft lip and palate patients, highlighting its effectiveness in improving aesthetics and quality of life.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of existing research on HA use in CLP patients, emphasizing its safety and efficacy in facial correction.

Findings

HA effectively corrects lip scars and facial asymmetry in CLP patients

Use of HA improves patients' self-esteem and social integration

Procedures are increasingly safe and less invasive

Abstract

Since the Resolution 198/2019 of Brazilian Dental Council, which regulates orofacial harmonization as a dental specialty, and the advent of various uses of facial fillers, such as hyaluronic acid (HA), it is possible to perform both esthetic and functional corrections in individuals. Individuals with cleft lip and palate (CLP) present lip irregularities even after orofacial rehabilitation with an interdisciplinary team with several corrective surgeries, interfering with the esthetics, which can cause problems in self-esteem and social insertion. Thus, facial filling is an innovation that, together with dentistry, contributes to the individual's esthetics and well-being. Considering the patient safety and health, more research is progressively being conducted to make such procedures less invasive. This work conducted a literature review on the use of HA as a facial filler to correct lip scars in patients with CLP. By a literature and transverse search in Scientific Electronic Library Online and PubMed databases using specific descriptors, the studies that met the inclusion criteria were selected, from 1990 to 2020. It can be concluded that the use of HA as a facial filling material in the correction of lip scars from reparative surgeries related to CLP has been shown to be effective both for correction of facial asymmetry and to improve the quality of life of patients who used the procedure.