After early repair of cleft lip and palate children, as they get older and the developmental process continues to change, developmental imbalances can occur in the original site and cause new deformities to appear. The main manifestations are.
I. Nasal deformities.
1. Bilateral nasal asymmetry. The nasal wing on the cleft lip side is collapsed, the nostrils are either large or small, and the nostrils are flattened, etc.
2. Flattened or low nasal tip and short nasal column.
3.The base of the affected side of the nose is sunken and not full, and there is a defect at the bottom of the nostril.
Second, lip deformity.
1.Red lips are not flush, less red lips, not full.
2.Scars on the upper lip.
3.Short upper lip, or too long with small mouth deformity.
3.Upper jaw underdevelopment.
The upper jaw is receding, the anterior teeth are retruding, and the upper lip appears to be unfilled and the paranasal area is sunken. Some patients may also have mandibular protrusion.
Orthopedic treatment
The repair of cleft lip and palate deformities is a very delicate and creative surgery. It is not a big operation, but it is not easy to do it really well. We know that there are many small skin protrusions and depressions on the normal upper lip, such as the midpersonal ridge and midpersonal groove; the red lip looks like a curved moon hanging on the upper lip; and the junction between the red lip and the white lip is gently elevated. It is quite a skillful treatment to restore the complex shape of these soft tissues through surgery again, so the repair of cleft lip and palate deformity is not a simple cut and suture, but a re-creation!
Bone tissue reconstruction is a major surgery that requires correction of the position of the upper and lower jaws to enable the upper and lower jaw teeth to bite better, and to change the shape of the face so that the upper lip is full and no longer sunken. Surgery on bone tissue is generally performed after maturity (18 years old), and early intervention treatment is also possible in individual cases, depending on the circumstances.
I. Choice of treatment timing.
Generally speaking, the first rhinolabioplasty is chosen to be performed before school entry. The more obvious deformities will affect the child’s mental health, so choose the obvious deformities for treatment before school. The second plastic surgery is chosen after puberty for a more systematic plastic surgery treatment.
The treatment of jaw deformity is chosen to be carried out after maturity of development.
Second, the treatment process precautions.
1, systematic treatment, do not disorderly, blind treatment.
2, to avoid excessive treatment: the development process, too much surgery itself on the development of tissue, each operation will leave a certain degree of scarring, in addition to the possible loss of some normal tissue, which adversely affects the later development and treatment.