Cleft palate is a common congenital malformation of the oral and maxillofacial region. Cleft palate can occur alone or in conjunction with cleft lip. The current treatment for congenital cleft palate is a comprehensive sequence of surgically based treatments.
Appropriate timing of surgery for cleft palate patients The selection of the appropriate timing for cleft palate revision surgery is still controversial internationally and opinions are not uniform. The main focus of the controversy is on the speech outcome of children with cleft palate after surgery and the impact of the surgery itself on the growth and development of the maxilla. Therefore, the choice of the appropriate time for cleft palate revision surgery is currently summarized in two views, both of which have reasons.
1. One viewpoint advocates early surgery, and advocates that surgery be performed when the child is 8 to 18 months old. The reason is: around 2 years old is the time when the child starts to speak, so if the surgery is performed before the child speaks, the child can learn to speak more naturally after the surgery and establish normal pronunciation habits.
2. Another viewpoint advocates surgery before school age, that is, it is better to perform surgery when the child is about 5-6 years old. The reason is that the early surgery will aggravate the underdevelopment of maxilla due to the damage of surgery and stripping the periosteum, as well as the formation of postoperative scars, etc. Therefore, it is considered appropriate to operate at the age of 5-6 years after the basic development of maxilla is completed, and also to reduce the risk of anesthesia and surgery.
At present, in actual clinical work, the decision to choose the age of surgery is generally made on a case-by-case basis. The overall condition of the child, the speech effect, the development of the maxilla, the surgical method, the surgical safety and the requirements of the child’s family are all taken into consideration.