Abstract: The prevalence rate of cleft lip and palate in our country is high and most of the cleft lip and palate patients develop alveolar cleft at the same time. There is much literature indicating that alveolar bone level of the teeth near the cleft is low and orthodontic treatment before the alveolar bone grafting can aggravate the existing low alveolar bone level. So it is important to understand the morphology of the alveolar bone near the cleft and to limit the movement of the teeth in the pre-operation orthodontic treatment. Cone-beam computed tomography （CBCT） shows great accuracy and reproducibility in the quantitative research of alveolar bone, which have great advantage over the traditional two-dimensional periapical film. The present review focuses on the morphology of alveolar bone near the cleft.

Key words: alveolar cleft, cone-beam computed tomography, alveolar bone morphology