Cleft Lip Palate Treatment Options - Cleft Lip Before After Pictures
During the 6th up to the 11th normal gestation period, the clefts where the lip and palate are joined, forms and fuse together. Before this period, a fetus is normally developed with a cleft lip and a cleft palate. But as it grows, it reaches a certain period where the clefts are supposed to fuse together. However, in cases when the clefts failed to fuse during this period, there’s a big chance that the baby will be born with either a cleft lip, cleft palate or cleft lip and palate altogether.
A cleft appearing on the face usually is within the mouth area. This particular cleft means a separation or a split on the skin. When the skin within the upper skin area of the mouth fails to fuse, a cleft lip is produced. A cleft palate occurs when the roof otherwise known as the palate inside the mouth is separated and not fully developed.
To simply put it, a cleft lip, palate or both cleft lip and palate condition is a split in the mouth structure. This oral or mouth deformity condition is medically referred to as a craniofacial anomaly. There’s always a big possibility that a child will be born with this condition. Even though there’s still no definite reason for the occurrence of cleft lip and palate condition, it is the most common of all birth defects.
Children born with this condition may have just a cleft lip or a cleft palate, but both cleft lip and cleft palate in one condition is just as common as well. The range or the severity of cleft lip condition can vary from a skin separation that extends from the lip up into the nose; or it can be just a small notch found in the upper lip.
Cleft palate on the other hand can range from being a small malformation with minimal complications to a large separation of the palate that contributes to a wide range of complication as well. With severe cleft palate condition, complications can interfere and contribute to eating, speech and language delays, ear infection, hearing loss, normal teeth development and breathing.
Oral cleft deformities have three main types. These clefts are commonly referred to as either bilateral or unilateral. Bilateral is a split or a separation on each area while unilateral is just a split on one of the sides.
The three main types of oral cleft conditions are isolated cleft lip, isolated cleft palate and cleft lip and palate. Isolated cleft lip is accounted for 20% of all the oral cleft condition. While isolated cleft palate condition on the other hand occurs in about one of 2000 babies. Cleft lip and palate condition where both areas are separated, about one out of 1000 babies is going to be born with this common birth defect.
