Cleft palate and lip
The cleft palate is one of the most common fetal growth and developmental abnormalities and is quite common in children.
The cleft lip is a congenital disability in the development of nasal tissues and the upper (less often lower) mouth in humans, a distinctive feature of which is a cleft lip. The hare lip manifests itself as aesthetic deficiencies, speech problems, and difficulties with feeding, bottle-sucking, and breastfeeding. Psychosomatic development in children with a cleft lip not slowed down at all. The disease occurs in 0.04% of babies.
The cleft palate and cleft lip disease are diagnosed in both children and adults and even older women and men and require radical treatment. These defects in the development and growth of tissues are often combined and need urgent assistance from a maxillofacial surgeon, and later a dentist and speech therapist.
Causes of occurrence
The reasons why the cleft palate and cleft lip disease appears, doctors believe:
- smoking of the expectant mother before and during pregnancy;
- taking even small doses of alcohol in the first months of carrying the baby;
- drug addiction;
- taking certain medications can cause many congenital disabilities in children;
- bad ecology;
- harmful working conditions;
- deficiency of folic acid in the first months of gestation;
- long-term toxicosis;
- excess weight;
- the woman’s age (after 35 the number of mutations increases dramatically);
- hereditary
Diagnostics
Diagnostics of the cleft palate and cheiloschisis is possible in late pregnancy. It carried out using a standard ultrasound. Fetal ultrasound may not always show the rough shape of the cleft palate. Sometimes a gap in the soft or hard palate is found after childbirth during an external examination of the baby.
Treatment at Tel Aviv Medical Clinic
The Tel Aviv Medical Clinic in Israel offers to treat the cleft palate with the following methods:
- Cycle plastic surgery (recommended for partial cleft palate) is allowed for babies from 8 months of age.
- Operation of uranoplasty. Recommended for use in adults and children from 2 years of age.
Comprehensive cleft palate treatment at Tel Aviv Medical Clinic will most likely include a series of surgeries for the palatine lobes’ ultimate healing. In parallel with the surgical treatment, the orthodontist, neurologist, psychologist, dentist, and speech therapist arrange classes for the baby.
Full correction of the lip’s shape and structure with the help of operations should be completed by three years of age (speech established).
If the cleft lip was removed during adolescence, the child will most likely need a speech therapist’s help and get rid of the scar.