Cleft Lip
Prehistoric art tells historians that people once thought congenital diseases, or birth defects, werebad omens or the displeasing of the gods. In one instance, it was thought that cleft lip was caused by themother of the baby being startled by a rabbit. Odd as it may seem, at that time it was the most logicalexplanation for that particular birth defect. However, now we know that a cleft lip is not caused by amother being startled by a rabbit, but by the environment the mother is in, the ethnicity, race, genetics,sex, and so on. Cleft lip is the fourth most frequent congenital disease in the United States. On average,one of every 700 newborns is affected by this disease, which means that approximently 5,000 babies areborn with cleft lip every year. This very common defect goes along with many other defects as well. Affected babies go through surgery to sew the lip around 1 to 2 months of age, later dental/orthodonticcare, ear care, and speech therapy. Although a lot of cleft lip cases accommodate some mental situations,a lot of cases do not. First of all, the prefix "cleft" means "split," so knowing this, a cleft lip is a separation, or split, in the upper lip. The cleft might only be on one side of the lip making a small notch,or
it could go all the way to the base of the nose. This type of a cleft lip is called a unilateral. A secondtype of a cleft lip is called a bi-lateral where there is one cleft on each side of the lip. The separation isusually an opening where the upper lip failed to grow together. The failing to grow together can varyfrom a small notch at the top of the lip to a complete separation stretching to the nose. How this defecthappens goes back to genetics. Every child inherits 100,000 genes, 50,000 from each parent. There are anumber of inherited genes that combine together to form the face, palate, or lip, and that can cause aproblem. In most cases, cleft lip happens because of a combination of genes and some unknown environmentalthings. For this, a cleft lip is described as a multifactorial condition. Though the child is born with thisdeformity, it is not a deformity that can not be made normal by surgery. A baby born with a cleft lip usually has an operation to close the lip at 1 to 2 months of age. Cheiloplasty, or cleft lip repair, closes the opening in the lip caused by this birth defect. If the cleft isbi-lateral, closing it can be done on both sides simultaneously or the surgeon may repair the lip one side ata time in separate surgeries. Sometimes, in a bad case of cleft lip, a preliminary operation to bring thetwo sides of the separation closer will probably be needed. This operation can be either a lip adhesion,which means to sew the edges together without aligning the lip, or to put something in the mouth tomechanically align the lip and gums. Cleft lip repair is typically done in a hospital with the patient underanesthesia. There are two common surgical approaches. There is the rotation-advancement lip repair,where the surgeon makes an incision on both sides of the nostrils, going from the lip into the nostrils.Working through the incision, the surgeon opens the lip completely, rotates the pink outer part downward,and advances skin from the cheek into the cut part to get rid of the cleft. The second way is referred to astriangular flap repair. This means that the surgeon makes incisions to make small skin flaps between thelip and nose. These flaps overlap to close the cleft, restore muscle function, and form the normal lipshape. Usually, the nostril is also deformed when a child has a cleft lip. So the nostril can also be fixed atthe time of the lip operation or in a later surgery. If someone wants to get an operation to fix the nasalonly, this operation usually occurs when the child has reached adolescence. The results depend on howbad the deformity is, the absence of infection, and the surgeon's skill. When surgery is done by a qualified plastic surgeon with experience in repairing cleft lip, theresults can make an outstanding difference. However, as with any operation, there are risks with surgery. In cleft lip surgery, the most common problem is asymmetry, which is when one side of the mouth andnose does not match the other side. The goal of cleft lip su
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Approximate Word count = 2011
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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