The Centre For Contemporary Dentistry

Cleft Palate Disguises Opportunities

Are you someone who is offered fantastic opportunities but they are cleverly disguised as impossible challenges?

You may be a teenager who was born with a cleft palate, or your son or daughter may be that teenager. While it is desirable to begin treatments on a child born with a cleft palate as soon as possible, treatments do not end with childhood. They actually stretch over the person's lifetime.

It is not uncommon for teens and adults to have treatments that continue the work begun when they were children to improve their facial features, enhance their smiles or to help them develop better speech sounds. Having more confidence helps teens in social and business relationships and makes them feel better about themselves.

When we embark on this leg of your journey, first of all, I will be a member of your team of experts who will plan and provide your care. You will have an orthodontist (the braces person), a prosthodontist (the dental appliance person), and an oral and maxillofacial surgeon.

Our combined technologies and skills will help you have the smile you deserve.

There is typically a missing tooth when a cleft palate occurs. One option is move a nearby tooth into the missing tooth's space and then reshape the tooth to look like the one it replaces. We might add a white filling or a crown instead of reshaping the tooth. [top image]

A second possibility is to create a partial denture for you. This is a removable appliance that typically uses a metal framework to hold it in place. [middle image]

We might also consider a fixed bridge. In this piece, an artificial tooth has a crown connected to each side of it.

Finally, we could use an implant to fill the empty space. An implant is a hi-tech metal post that is surgically placed into your bone. Your own bone grows around the post and securely anchors it. Then, we place a beautiful crown atop the implant. [bottom image]

Someone with a cleft palate has a life full of possibilities and opportunities, and your dental care team will do all we can to help you enjoy your teen and adult years.

Please call our office and schedule an appointment so that we can discuss your dental goals, evaluate your dental challenge and together create a treatment plan that will give you the lovely, natural-looking smile you deserve as you skyrocket toward adulthood.