The Details of Hunter's Cleft




Hunter has a bilateral cleft lip and palate. The cleft that he has on his right is a "complete cleft lip and palate". The lip is affected all the way up into his nose and the palate is affected through his gums all the way back into his mouth. His uvula (dangly ball, punching bag, or whatever else you want to call it) is divided in two.The cleft he has on his left side is an "incomplete cleft of the lip and an incomplete cleft of the palate". This cleft does not go all the way up into his nose nor does the palatal cleft go through the gumline. It does, however begin behind the gums and continue all the way back into his mouth.

Hunter will wear a NAM (Nasoalveolar Molding) device as sort of a retainer to get the two pieces of his palate closer together before his lip surgery. He will hopefully have lip repair surgery when he is 3 months old. Since his palate will be closer together this will cause less stress on the lip repair as the pieces of his lip will not have to be stretched as far. This will promote better healing for his lip (especially on his right side). At this same surgery Hiunter's nose will be worked on but not perfected. The main goal of this surgery is to get the lip and its muscles back to where they should be. Also, at this surgery, ear tubes will be placed if they are not placed in Hunter's ears before 3 months. Since he already has a nasty ear infection, an early surgery for ear tubes is a possibility.

Hunter's palate will be repaired sometime around the age of 12-14 months. At this surgery the pieces of Hunter's palate will be pieced togeher where they should be and his Uvulas will be brought together.

Many surgeries may follow this one. The plastic surgeon says Hunter will definetly need at LEAST 4 surgeries total (lip repair, palate repair, lip/nose revision before Hunter starts school, and bone graft when Hunter reaches dental maturity to put a bone in the empty gap of his gums.)

In addition to these, Hunter will need extensive orthodontic work. Braces, probable palate expansion (a procedure that requires head gear), and more.




WARNING: the included pictures are graphic real life depictions of Hunter's actual cleft lip, cleft palate, and divided uvula. If the paragraph above is enough to satisfy your curiosity and you do not wish to see the pictures, this would be a good place to stop.

.
..
...
....
.....
......
.......
........
.........
..........
.........
........
.......
......
.....
....
...
..
.
NOTE: I did not MAKE Hunter cry to get these pictures, I just caught him when he was already upset (hungry) and we were waiting for Daddy to come back with a bottle.

Complete cleft on his right affects the structure of his nose.



Hard to tell, but this is Hunter's palate.
Point of reference: the pink in the upper right of the mouth are
his gums where his two front teeth will come in.
The pink in the bottom of his mouth is his tongue. 




This picture shows Hunter's uvula is split in half.
(the two dangly balls in the back of his throat)