The cleft side of the nose in babies born with unilateral cleft lip and palate has a typical appearance, with a flattened nasal ala, poorly defined tip and alar base depression. The side affected is longer than the non-cleft side, and the columella and the septum have variable degrees of deviation. Some factors contribute to these deformities, such as the deviation of osteocartilaginous nose structures, the morphology of the alar cartilage, and the cleft width, which may change before surgery when treated with presurgical orthopedics and nasal modeling. The physiological basis for alar cartilage modeling in newborn patients is the effect of estrogen on different body structures, which grants elasticity and plasticity to maxillary and alar cartilage segments. Nasal modeling is a technique that has good esthetic results and decreases the complexity of primary surgeries. This study describes a simplified technique to manufacture a nasal molding device (NMD) and a case of NMD use.

Conflict of interest: None declared.