CLEFT PALATE Introduction This research paper pr

Cleft palate, a common defect of the face, is an malformed passageway through the roof of the mouth connecting to the airway of the nose. This differs from the cleft lip, which is an incomplete joining of the upper lip, below the nose. The cleft lip and cleft palate tend to occur together. With a cleft lip, the infant cannot close the lips around a nipple and a cleft palate hinders eating and speech efforts. Cleft palate is found in around one out of every 1,800 births, it occurs with cleft lip in approximately one out of every 600 to 700 births (cleft lip alone is found in around one of every 1,000 births). A dental device is used to temporarily seal the mouth roof, and both defects can be permanently corrected with surgery (Merck Manual, 2000).

Children with cleft palate and cleft lip (CLP) are found to be at risk for hearing, speech, language, academic, and social difficulties. Language delays interfere with the child's communication skills which can lead to behavioral problems and intellectual delays. Middle-ear effusion is found in most cases which can lead to hearing loss, also effecting learning abilities. Previous studies have focused on older children and adults (Jocelyn, Penko, & Rode, 1996, pp. 529-5

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licting results, however, early case-controlled studies found increased risk of fetal cleft lip and palate; the issue remains controversial (Dolovich, Addis, Vaillancourt, & Pwoer, 1998, p. 839). Mebendazole therapy during pregnancy has been studied for its affect on congenital defects. Many pregnant women become infected with hookworms (44 million throughout the world), and mebendazole is a widely used anthelmintic. Although there appears to be no association with increased birth defects, it is recommended that this therapy be avoided during the first trimester (de Silva, Sirisena, Gunasekera, Ismail, and de Silva, 1999, p. 1145). The microdeletion of chromosome 22q11 is a common genetic defect that is related to cardiac and craniofacial abnormalities, including cleft palate. Since there is great variability in the phenotype that is associated with this deletion, it is postulated that other genes in the region or distant modifier genes, or other environmental factors may contribute to the outcomes of this syndrome (Yamagishi, Garg, Matsuoka, Thomas, & Srivastava, 1999). Surgical Outcomes Surgical reconstruction of palatal defects is needed for the separation of the oral cavity from the nasal and sinus cavities. With th
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Von Langenbeck, Hagberg Ideberg, Yamaguchi Furukawa, Goujard Ayme, Prevalence Cleft, Standards Advisory, Sandy Sterne, Penko Rode, Gultran Haller, Conclusions Cleft, cleft lip, cleft palate, cleft lip palate, lip palate, birth defects, de silva, williams sandy, merck manual, surgical outcomes, associated risks, speech outcome, sirisena gunasekera ismail, silva sirisena gunasekera, merck manual 2000, de silva sirisena,
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