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The major fontanelle begins to close at around 18 months of age. From the age of 2 years until adulthood the cranium grows a few centimetres in circumference, but the basic shape remains the same. Any deformity left untreated before this will become permanent.
Cranial deformities do not go away by themselves. Shown are some cases without treatment:
3 years / 3 years / 3 years / 5.5 years
6 years / 7 years / 7.5 years / adult
Quotations from the first article published world-wide on the subject of treatment by cranial orthoses in four newborn babies of 4-7 months of age:
- “In some patients the oblique form of the cranium becomes a permanent cosmetic handicap”.
- “All four patients used the helmet continuously for two to three months, except at bathtime. In all cases, cranial asymmetry improved noticeably... whereas in the case of the six patients with only partial or no treatment, the degree of craniofacial asymmetry hardly varied between four and nine months after the initial evaluation”.
- “We will never know if our patients' deformities would have improved by themselves, but this would certainly have taken much longer and with no guarantee of results. In future, we recommend treatment for patients with severe plagiocephaly as well as those with moderate deformities which persist without any apparent spontaneous improvement”.
Clarren SK, Smith DW, Hanson JW. Helmet treatment for plagiocephaly and congenital muscular torticollis.
J. Pediatr 1979; 94 (1): 43-46
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