Do all soft cleft palate surgeries require dental treatment?

Question

Hi doctor,

My daughter is 2 years old and was detected with a soft cleft palate. We had performed soft cleft palate surgery for her. I read a few articles, and it recommended ortho surgery as for cleft palate. But, I am confused as it is mentioned only cleft palate. I wanted to know whether children with a soft cleft palate also need to go under this repair.

I do not see any misplacement in her teeth, and the plastic surgeon who performed her soft cleft surgery also did not inform us about it. So, my question is, do all soft cleft palate surgeries require dental treatment as well? What are the symptoms to identify whether our child needs it?

Kindly help.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Soft cleft palate means a submucous cleft of the soft palate. That means a midline defect of the muscles, which failed to completely join at the correct positions during development. But the bony structure is sound. Many times speech problems are associated with the same. This usually does not involve any typical dental features of the cleft palate as you may have read.

This is because the area of poor development was much further from the dentition. Similarly, since there are no bony defects, orthognathic surgery is not indicated because of the submucous cleft palate. The surgery would have been to repair these muscular connections.

However, this does not mean that your daughter will never require dental or orthodontic treatment. You can worry about the same as the permanent teeth start to erupt. You can get a dental checkup every 6 months for your child to start with and then as indicated by the pedodontist.

I hope this helps.