Surgery at right time necessary to handle cleft

Chennai: Cleft lip and palate, the most common facial birth deformity, occurs in approximately 1 out of 700 children. The defect, which causes difficulties in feeding, breathing, eating, swallowing and later in speech and dental problems, is one that causes extreme anxiety and worry to the victims and their families.

“Every patient with a cleft lip or palate or any other such severe deformity is stricken with sorrow. No matter how many years one is in this field, it is just as heartbreaking each time we see such patients as it was in the beginning,” said Dr S.M. Balaji of the Balaji Dental and Craniofacial Hospital.

“Whenever I see such suffering I feel that this should be prevented. With such advances in science, we need to find ways to prevent the occurrence of such defects and devise technologies to help diagnose it effectively and very early,” he added. The defects are known to be correctable by multiple surgeries at appropriate ages.

The first surgery is a cleft lip correction, which is done when the baby is two to three months old to close the gap in the upper lip. The cleft palate surgery, which is done when the child is between nine and 11 months, helps to close the gap in the roof of the mouth.

A speech correction surgery may be needed at three years of age. To close the bony gap in the teeth-bearing region of the upper jaw, a bone graft may be done. As the child grows, through adolescence and early adulthood, further jaw, nose and teeth correction surgeries are done.

“Every child with a face or skull defect is different. Every defect is unique. Each child has a different growth potential. As in a cleft defect, the growth of the upper jaw is affected, it doesn’t grow as much in proportion to the lower jaw. In some cases the growth is normal and the jaws are symmetrical, in such cases only minor corrections may be needed. In cases of severe deformity, the upper jaw doesn’t grow normally and needs to be reconstructed using bone graft,” the doctor, who is known for his expertise in handling such cases, told Deccan Chronicle.

“I have been doing cleft and craniofacial surgeries for some countries free of cost for almost two decades. I consider it my good fortune to put my expertise in the service of those suffering from facial defects,” he said.