Frequent Questions About Plastic Surgery
What is cleft lip and palate?
Cleft lip and palate are an error in fusion when the fetus is forming. The pieces that make up the lip and palate start out on opposite sides of the head and come around to join in the middle of the face. This happens in the case of the lip at about six to seven weeks of gestation and of the palate at about 12 weeks. When there is a cleft, these pieces come around but fail to join or fuse together.
How often do cleft lip and palate occur?
Cleft lip and palate happen once in every 700 live births.
African-American: one in every 2,000
Caucasian: one in every 750-1,000
Oriental, Hispanic: one in every 500
Clefts of the lip occur more often in boys (60 percent) and more often on the left side (60 percent). Cleft of the palate only are more common in girls. A higher percentage of children with clefts are born in the cold months than in the warm.
If there is no close family history of clefting and this is your only child with a cleft, the chances of you as a couple of having another baby with a cleft are about four percent, or four out of 100. If clefts are more common in your family, talk with a geneticist who can help determine your risk.
Plastic Surgery staff serve on the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Craniofacial Center.
What do plastic surgeons do for kids?
In addition to covering the Cincinnati Children's Emergency Department for lacerations, the Plastic Surgery staff care for fractures and infections of the hand, tendon and nerve injuries, complex wounds of the face as well as damage in the soft tissues of the trunk and limbs and facial fractures.
The staff evaluates and treats lesions such as moles, nevus, hemangiomas, skin tags and other masses. We also reconstruct congenital defects such as fused fingers, missing or extra fingers, cup ears, cleft lip and palate, craniosynostosis and burns.
Recommended Print Resources
The Speech Pathology Department at Cincinnati Children's recommends the following book for further information about clefts, velopharyngeal dysfunction and team care:
- Kummer AW. (2008). Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies: Effects on Speech and Resonance, 2nd Edition. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson Delmar Learning.
