Role of Plastic Surgery in treating Cleft Lip & Palate - Dr. Srikanth V

The children with a cleft lip and a cleft palate have a birth defect wherein the lip and the alveolus and the palate is not fully formed. Along with this the upper airway and the eustachian tube may not be fully developed. So the treatment of the cleft lip and a cleft palate is a team effort, it involves the plastic surgeon, the pediatrician, the ENT surgeon, the orthodontist, speech therapist and so many other more. But the involvement of these doctors are required at specific points of time. So what the plastic surgeon, will do for you is he will be like a team leader who will coordinate the treatment between all these people. He know when to involve the ENT surgeon, when to involve the pediatrician, when the orthodontist, has to come in, when the speech therapist has to come in and went the faciognathic surgeon is to be involved so that all the specialist and the team members are brought together and the patient get the best possible care. Also the involvement of the plastic surgeon is the sense of aesthetics because of expose and training to other fields of plastic surgery and esthetics is much more accurate and much more detailed than other people trying to perform the surgery. So it is in the interest of your own child and the patient that you go to a plastic surgeon so that you get a well-informed plan about the treatment of cleft lip and cleft palate.