page_title: Craniofacial cleft
section_title: Tessier classification
hierarchical_section_title: Craniofacial cleft / Classifications / Tessier classification
caption_attribution_description: English: Tessier classification. Left: boney clefts, right: soft tissue clefts
context_page_description: A facial cleft is an opening or gap in the face, or a malformation of a part of the face. Facial clefts is a collective term for all sorts of clefts. All structures like bone, soft tissue, skin etc. can be affected. Facial clefts are extremely rare congenital anomalies. There are many variations of a type of clefting and classifications are needed to describe and classify all types of clefting. Facial clefts hardly ever occur isolated; most of the time there is an overlap of adjacent facial clefts.
context_section_description: In 1976 Paul Tessier published a classification on facial clefts based on the anatomical position of the clefts. The different types of Tessier clefts are numbered 0 to 14. These 15 different types of clefts can be put into 4 groups, based on their position: midline clefts, paramedian clefts, orbital clefts and lateral clefts. The Tessier classification describes the clefts at soft tissue level as well as at bone level, because it appears that the soft tissue clefts can have a slightly different location on the face than the bony clefts.
caption: Tessier classification. Left: boney clefts, Right: Soft tissue clefts.
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