Cleft Lip and Palate: Long-Term Results and Future Prospects : The Presurgical Period, Initial Surgery, and Speech, Surgery and Growth

Cleft lip and palate are common and distressing human birth defects but much still needs to be learnt about the care and management of the conditions and the long-term consequences of the treatment. This work provides a forum for the development of better understanding of the problems involved and for better new ideas to be developed to significantly improve the treatment of this condition. All aspects including plastic surgery, speech therapy, oral and maxillofacial surgery, growth and psychology and paediatrics are analyzed and discussed, as well as treatment failures and prosthetic rehabilitation. This first volume, concentrating on the early years, is divided into three parts. The first deals with the embryology and epidemiology of these conditions and addresses the social and psychological problems of the newborn; the second considers timing and sequence of lip and palate repair, long-term results of primary bone grafting, periosteoplasty and lip surgery, and the third section, on speech, surgery and growth, analyzes these three aspects and their interrelationships. The work includes discussions between experts with differing viewpoints and sometimes controversial opinions. It will be a useful reference for those involved in the treatment of cleft lip and palate patients including plastic surgeons, orthodontists, speech therapists, paediatricians, psychologists, radiologists and medical geneticists.