Cleft Lip and Palate Treatment

Conditions We Treat

Treatments and Services

Before

After

Cleft Lip Before & After Photos

Picturing what children look like after surgery gives our families hope and great expectations. Meet some of our patients who face the world with confidence today and tomorrow after comprehensive, personalized care. When your child is treated for a cleft lip and/or palate, you can expect holistic, compassionate care.

Unilateral Cleft lip is the most common type of cleft lip condition that extends from the lip up to the nose and/or soft palate.
Bilateral Cleft Lip affects both sides and the front portion of the gums.

See More Before & After Photos

Proactive care starts with neonatal consults

Our Cleft team will likely first meet your child before birth. At just a few days old, the care plan begins and you may meet with our orthodontics team to discuss whether a pre-surgery Nasoalveolar Molding (NAM) device can optimize your child’s outcome. At 4-6 weeks, we begin discussing options for surgery, which is usually performed when your child is 3 months old. Oftentimes, we can start treatment within 2 weeks.

Appointments that cater to you

To ease the burden on you and your family, each member of your multidisciplinary team will rotate through your room in our child-friendly clinic setting. After the appointment, the team gathers around the table to discuss your child’s case. Together we will develop an integrated approach that addresses all of your child’s needs. We are devoted to creating a customize care plan and walking beside you each step that you take on this journey.

Have questions about your upcoming visit? Learn more about what to expect before, during and after your cleft lip and palate appointment.

All of her doctors communicate with each other, and they can know what is going on in her world, because it’s not just about one specialist.
Molly's mom

Advanced care through every stage of life with bilingual experts by your side

Because cleft lip and palate can cause a range of health issues, our team is standing by to help with any need that may arise. When your child is born, we will closely monitor his or her feeding schedule and weight gain. We embrace your child from birth to adulthood with dental care, psychosocial support and speech therapy provided by certified Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs). To better serve all of our patients, we are proud to be the only cleft program in North Texas with a speech language pathologist on staff who speaks Spanish.

A recognized leader in care

Our cleft and craniofacial team is composed of multiple specialists and is fully approved by the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association’s Commission on Approval of Teams.

Children’s Health is the only ACPA-approved team in North Texas with the largest cleft team in the region performing more cleft related surgery than any other team in the region.

Proactive care starts with neonatal consults

Our Cleft team will likely first meet your child before birth. At just a few days old, the care plan begins and you may meet with our orthodontics team to discuss whether a pre-surgery Nasoalveolar Molding (NAM) device can optimize your child’s outcome. At 4-6 weeks, we begin discussing options for surgery, which is usually performed when your child is 3 months old. Oftentimes, we can start treatment within 2 weeks.

Appointments that cater to you

To ease the burden on you and your family, each member of your multidisciplinary team will rotate through your room in our child-friendly clinic setting. After the appointment, the team gathers around the table to discuss your child’s case. Together we will develop an integrated approach that addresses all of your child’s needs. We are devoted to creating a customize care plan and walking beside you each step that you take on this journey.

Have questions about your upcoming visit? Learn more about what to expect before, during and after your cleft lip and palate appointment.

Advanced care through every stage of life with bilingual experts by your side

Because cleft lip and palate can cause a range of health issues, our team is standing by to help with any need that may arise. When your child is born, we will closely monitor his or her feeding schedule and weight gain. We embrace your child from birth to adulthood with dental care, psychosocial support and speech therapy provided by certified Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs). To better serve all of our patients, we are proud to be the only cleft program in North Texas with a speech language pathologist on staff who speaks Spanish.

A recognized leader in care

Our cleft and craniofacial team is composed of multiple specialists and is fully approved by the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association’s Commission on Approval of Teams.

Children’s Health is the only ACPA-approved team in North Texas with the largest cleft team in the region performing more cleft related surgery than any other team in the region.

22q doesn’t diminish Molly's joy

Before starting kindergarten in August 2018, Molly spent the summer traveling with her family, swimming, spending time in the country with her grandparents and playing dress-up with her big sister. She loves her big sister, ice cream and dogs. Seeing her, you would never guess that her earliest days were spent at Children's Medical Center Dallas.

An infant born with a cleft lip and palate receives expert care at Children's Health

When Courtney was just 27 weeks pregnant, she and her husband learned that their unborn daughter, Corlee, had a cleft lip during a 3D ultrasound.

Rebecca's story

By the time she was 9 years old, Rebecca had already undergone eight surgeries to correct her cleft lip, a congenital craniofacial deformity affecting approximately one in 700 newborns in the U.S. Now, by the age of 17, she's had three additional surgeries, with one final procedure scheduled this December. She's faced challenges – physically and emotionally – that no child should have to bear. Through it all, however, if there’s one word to describe her, it's strong.

Mending the tiniest of faces

Manuel remembers the moment he realized that his baby girl born with a cleft lip and palate would be okay. "As soon as we met her surgeon, we knew she was in the best hands possible," Manuel says. James Seaward, M.D., plastic and craniofacial surgeon at Children’s Health and Assistant Professor of Pediatric Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery at UT Southwestern, met Manuel and his wife, Belinda, after an ultrasound revealed the cleft lip and palate. Their baby, Wendy, would need surgery to repair it.