Cleft Palate
By: Te'a Jackson
What is Cleft Palate?
- Also known as palatoschisis
- Can be treated with surgery
- They are types of abnormal developments of the face during pregnancy
- Two parts of the skull which form the hard palate are not fused together; the soft palate also has a gap (cleft)
- More common in Caucasian and Asian babies, compared to babies of African descent.
- Cleft palate is more common in females, while the combination cleft lip and palate is more common in males
- Half of all children born with such defects have the combination cleft lip and palate, while the rest are evenly divided between just cleft lip and just cleft palate.
Cleft palate
This is a normal cleft palate.
Cleft lip
Cleft lip is often associated with Cleft palate.
Surgery
Cleft palate can be fixed with surgery. The cost of surgery to fix this starts at a minimum of $5,000
Causes
- Tissue in babies face don't form properly.
- Interaction of genetic and enviromental factors.
- More likely to happen to women who smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, or take certain medications while pregnant.
- Either the mother or the father can pass on genes that cause clefting, either as an isolated defect or as part of a syndrome that includes clefting as one of the signs.
- In some cases, babies inherit a gene that makes them more likely to develop a cleft, and then an environmental trigger actually causes the cleft.
Complications
- Makes sucking difficult
- Milk may come out of the babies nose while eating
- Causes gagging
- Dental problems occur
- Speech Difficulties
- Middle ear infections common
- Children may face social, emotional, and behavioral problems