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Two of the more common birth defects are cleft lip and cleft palate. In this segment of a Sense of Community, Michele Skalicky talks with Dr. Ro Meystrik, a plastic surgeon at St. John's Clinic, about craniofacial defects and how they're treated. We also hear from Angelia Ham, a mom of two boys who were born with clefts and who has organized a local support network for parents of children who are born with clefts.
Clefts of the lip and palate are one of the most common birth defect, occurring in 750-1000 live births. Today, on Sense of Community we look at craniofacial defects and talk with a mom whose two sons were born with clefts.
Clefts are a failure of the tissues to grow across and bond at the midline of the lips and palate. Dr. Ro Meystrik is a plastic surgeon with St. John's Clinic. She says cleft lip and palate have a range of severity from a very minor one (a microform cleft where there's a little notch at the lip but the skin is there and it's very unperceivable) to a severe one, a bilateral cleft (on both sides of the lip) as well as a bilateral cleft palate.
Certain genetic conditions are predisposed to cleft lip, according to Dr. Meystrik, but most clefts just occur for seemingly no reason—with no family history of them.
If a person has one child with clefts, she says, their chance of having another child with a cleft is under 10%. Certain medications may increase the risk of clefting such as the anti-seizure medication dylantin.
The good news is, clefts can be repaired. A simple cleft of the lip can be fixed in one surgery at around 8 weeks of age.
A cleft lip and palate are repaired in stages. At around 8 weeks, the lip is fixed, and when the child reaches 20 pounds, their palate is repaired.
Bone grafting may be necessary as new permanent teeth come in. Rhinoplasty may be required during the teenage years.
According to Dr. Meystrik, researchers are looking into repairing clefts in the womb where healing occurs without any scarring. However, the risk of fetal and maternal death is too great now to warrant it. Meystrik feels, though, that in vitro repair of clefts could occur in her lifetime or at least in her daughter's lifetime.
Parents who find out their baby has a cleft during an ultrasound and those with babies who aren't diagnosed until birth often face a variety of feelings. To help them deal with those, Meystrik says several resources are available. Her office hands out information about clefting, and there are support groups available, as well. We'll learn about one of those—Cleft Advocate—during the afternoon segment of SOC at 4:30.
Dr. Meystrik also tries to pair parents of older kids with clefts with parents who've just had a baby with a craniofacial defect.
In a society that places a lot of emphasis on appearance, children born with clefts might face teasing from other kids who don't understand their condition. Dr. Meystrik says the key to preventing social problems for those children is repairing the clefts early.
Speech development can become an issue for children with clefts—that's why repair of the palate is done early. Often, children born with clefts undergo speech therapy, which Dr. Meystrik says also reduces the risk of being teased by their peers.
Children who are born with cleft lip and cleft palate also seen an orthodontist to make sure their teeth develop the way they should and also an ear, nose and throat doctor since they are more likely to have fluid build-up in their inner ears. Ear tubes are often needed.
This afternoon at 4:30, we'll meet Angelia Ham, a mom of two boys who were born with clefts and learn about a support network she runs for local parents whose children have craniofacial defects.
This program is available on the web at KSMU.org.
For KSMU News, I'm Michele Skalicky.
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