The surgery, which is performed to repair the grove-like defect in the lip present by birth, is termed as Cleft Lip Surgery or cleft lip repair. Cleft lip and palate repair is a type of plastic surgery to correct malformed lip, to restore appearance and function, making better the overall physical appearance.
Cleft palate affects almost every function of the face except vision. The surgery can be done when the child is only 6 to 12 weeks old. Immediately identifiable at birth, a cleft lip may either be a tiny notch in the lip or a total split in the lip that starts from the lip to the base of the nose, which may cause difficulty in breathing, eating and speaking in the baby.
The surgery usually results in a scar. At nine-twelve months, the condition can be corrected by plastic surgeons, who will connect the soft palate muscles and rearrange the tissue to near the cleft. General anaesthesia will be administered during the cleft palate surgery and a stay at the hospital for a short time to recover. The procedure involves trimming of the tissues and sewing of the lip together using very small absorbable stitches. The stitches will not have to be removed later and the resulting scar will be negligible. During these procedures, the surgeon may also have to perform rhinoplasty in order to fix the tip of the child’s nose, if required.
Palatoplasty, a procedure where they reconstruct or correct the palate in a person with a cleft palate, still remains a riddle to most of the cleft surgeons. The surgery in most cases differs from surgeon to surgeon and Hospitals. In addition, every surgeon incorporates his own modification to make it a variation. However, in most cases palatoplasty of soft palates is performed on those between the ages of 6-12 months. Generally, palatoplasty techniques are divided into three group.
The ideal technique of palatoplasty is the one which gives a perfect speech without affecting the maxillofacial growth and hearing. Repair techniques for a Hard palate comprise of von Langenbeck, Veau-Wardill-Kilner V-Y, two-flap, alveolar extension palatoplasty, vomer flap etc. The soft palate techniques include, double opposing Z-plasty, intravelar veloplasty, radical muscle dissection And the Schweckendiek’s, Malek’s techniques, which are protocol based. These techniques are still evolving as the competition to deliver the best is still on. One can opt for any of the above mentioned procedures but It is better to read about all the variations and techniques to know which one gives the desired result.
cleft palate surgery with affordable surgery packages has witnessed massive evolution and development over the past few decades with the advancement of medical science and technology. The the overall outcome of surgery has improved with the attempt to create a normal anatomy. Early palate repair, an early assessment with better instrumentation, early diagnosis of velopharyngeal function and further development of procedures are the current trends for achieving better alignment. And when there is improved bony alignment, it would surely result in desirable success rates in terms of speech and maxillofacial growth after cleft palate repair.
With medical science constantly making progress and surgical procedures improving conditions such as a cleft lip or palate can be corrected and restore normal appearance.
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