What Are Cleft Lip and Palate?
Cleft lip and palate are birth defects that happen while a baby is developing in the uterus. During the 6th to 10th week of pregnancy, the bones and tissues of a baby’s upper jaw, nose, and mouth normally come together (fuse) to form the roof of the mouth and the upper lip. If the tissue in the developing mouth and the palate don’t fuse together, a baby could be born with a condition called cleft lip or cleft palate, or both. The palate is the roof of the mouth and has two main parts. The front part behind the teeth is hard and the back part near the throat is soft. In babies with cleft palate, there is an opening between the roof of the mouth and the nose. This opening may be only through part of the palate (either the soft part or hard part) or through the entire palate. A complete cleft palate occurs when the left and right sides of the roof of the mouth have not fused together in the middle. In many cases, a baby born with a cleft palate also has a cleft lip. Babies who are born wi
Cleft lip and palate are birth defects that happen while a baby is developing in the uterus. During the 6th to 10th week of pregnancy, the bones and tissues of a baby’s upper jaw, nose, and mouth normally come together (fuse) to form the roof of the mouth and the upper lip. If the tissue in the developing mouth and the palate don’t fuse together, a baby could be born with a condition called cleft lip or cleft palate, or both. The palate is the roof of the mouth and has two main parts. The front part behind the teeth is hard and the back part near the throat is soft. In babies with cleft palate, there is an opening between the roof of the mouth and the nose. This opening may be only through part of the palate (either the soft part or hard part) or through the entire palate. In many cases, a baby born with a cleft palate also has a cleft lip, which is a gap or opening in the upper lip. A cleft lip can be either unilateral or bilateral. With a unilateral cleft lip, the gap is only on one
