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The Cleft Palate Clinic is for children with cleft lip and/or palate or other facial malformations. The cleft lip or palate is caused by a failure of the unborn infant's lip, mouth or nose to unite properly. The clinic meets once a month and each visit lasts approximately 3 hours. Each child is seen by specialists including: pediatrics, plastic surgery, psychology, social work, pedodontics oral surgery, prosthodontics, orthodontics, audiology otolaryngology, speech therapy, nursing, and nutritionist.
Examinations, not treatment, are carried out in the clinic and little, if any, discomfort will be experienced by the child. Each specialist examines the patient, then shares information with each other to develop a treatment plan specific for each individual patient.
The objectives to be achieved in the treatment of cleft/lip are:
- Normal jaw growth with normal facial form and appearance (normal dentition)
- Normal speech production
- Normal hearing
- Normal chewing/eating
These objectives are met with careful surgical planning which will be performed over a period of years and coordinated efforts of the multidisciplinary team in the clinic. The children are evaluated on a yearly basis to guide the families of the child as he/she develops and to monitor the progress of the child.
The clinic comes under the guidelines by the State of Michigan for Children's Multidisciplinary Services (CMS).
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