Cleft Lip and Palate (CLP) is the most common congenital facial deformity in the world. Approximately 1 in 500-600 children are affected. This means that some 3,000 babies are born with cleft lip and/or palate each year in Vietnam! Cleft lip and palate is present in every country and in all sections of society.
Cleft deformations can vary considerably. They can occur as a cleft lip either on one side of the face (unilateral) or on both sides of the upper lip (bilateral), as a cleft palate, cleft lip and palate or cleft lip and maxilla. Other types of cranio-facial clefts such as lateral clefts or facial clefts are rarer. Cleft lips and palates account for seventy per cent of the cases.
Simple cleft lip
Cleft palate
Left-hand lip and maxilla cleft
Transverse cranio-facial cleft with partial loss of eye
Full cleft of lip and maxilla
Babies with cleft are often sickly and malnourished due to feeding problems - often they cannot drink from a bottle or swallow. Speech and even hearing issues from the damaged lip and palate as well as dental and bone structure problems additionally hamper their social development and schooling. If the cleft is left untreated, the child will also suffer emotionally due to the way people react to the way they look, forcing them into a life of poor health, isolation, and poverty.
Frequently both children and their families are ostracised by their communities, and many families break down due to the stress and peer pressure, with parents leaving, abandoning their children, or in extreme cases committing suicide.
Sadly 12% of babies born with clefts and whose clefts are not repaired die before the age of five.
The good news is that cleft can be very well treated, greatly improving all of the negative effects of the cleft!
Even though cleft lips and palates are the most common congenital deformations it has still not been fully established what actually causes them. There is no single reason for cleft. Rather, there are genetic and environmental factors that influence the likelihood that a child is born with a cleft condition:
No person can be held responsible for the deformity.
