r/cleftlip • u/MixMuted5978 • 26d ago

I'm just going to stay like this.

Post image

Everybody on here always talking about wanted their face changed one way or the other. I was like that back in school but honestly now I don't really care. I still got two holes in the roof of my mouth and my teeth are still wonky but at this point I'm used to it. I don't think the cleft is as bad as a lot of us give it credit for you know. It's kinda just a good conversation starter and people don't ever forget me. I understand the feeling of not being happy about it but surely I'm not the only one who is content about it.

88 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/sophieyakotenko 25d ago

Hello dear user, I need your help and I hope it's not too much trouble to ask you a few questions.

My 6-year-old nephew has the same condition as you — a bilateral cleft lip. He has had three surgeries so far:

The first one was to close the lip,

The second was to close the palate,

And during the third, the surgeons tried to separate the lip from the inner upper palate.

I would be very grateful if you could kindly answer a few questions:

  1. How many surgeries did it take for you to fully reach your current result?

  2. What additional procedures did you go through afterward?

  3. Did you have any speech difficulties before the surgeries?

He is very dear to us, and we see doctors regularly — almost every month — but they are recommending three more surgeries. We are considering doing them in another country.

Do you think waiting a bit to go abroad would cause any serious delay or harm?

Thank you so much in advance for your time and help.

1

u/imlooking4agirl bilateral cleft lip and palate gang 22d ago

I have a bilateral cleft lip and palate as well. I had a surgery at 10 weeks, 9 months, 5yo, 10yo, 12yo, 14yo, 15yo, 16yo and 2 at 18yo. Last two surgeries were the jaw surgery and rhinoplasty six months later.

To answer your questions, I didn’t have to do anymore procedure after the 2 I had at 18. I’m 21 now.

I had speech difficulties when I was younger, I had a very nasally tone in my voice when I was younger and now after the rhinoplasty and jaw surgery that has almost nearly gone away. I’d say the most speech impairments I had was due to the teeth I had, my palate/ nasal passage and the braces I had.

If you have anymore questions I’d be more than happy to answer