Cleft and Craniofacial Reconstruction

After an ultrasound shows a potential cleft lip and or cleft palate, the parents may choose to have a consult with our cleft team to discuss the initial UC Davis Cleft Team plans and to support the family through the care process. 

Once the baby is born, our feeding nurse specialist and speech language pathology team will guide the parents in feeding.

In the first few months after birth, the family and infant will meet with one of our UC Davis Cleft Surgeons to answer questions and set a plan for your child’s care. 

We work with your pediatrician to weigh your child on a regular basis and can adjust the feeding and bottles if necessary. This is a partnership between our cleft team and the family.   We want the infant to grow and prepare for the first surgeries on the cleft lip or cleft palate. 

Our team of specialists monitors for possible developmental disorders in your child. Additional appointments and services can be arranged for those in need.

Children with cleft lip and/or palate can sometimes have sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea. Our team can evaluate for sleep disturbances, recommend testing and treatment, which may include surgery.

Difficulty breathing can occur in some babies with cleft lip and/or palate. If this occurs, we have an experienced team, including Pediatric Otolaryngologists and Pediatric Anesthesiologists, to manage and treat conditions that may cause breathing problems.

Surgery to advance the lower jaw is considered for a baby born with a small jaw that causes difficulty breathing and/or feeding. In babies and young children, this is often done with a surgery technique called distraction osteogenesis that moves the jaw forward in a slow, incremental process. In older children, teenagers and adults, the upper and lower jaw may be advanced with a single surgery, rather than incrementally with the distraction procedure, to correct abnormal bite and dental relationships.

UC Davis offers a multi-specialty team of experts to assess and manage head shape differences in newborns and children. Some newborns may require simple treatments, such as positioning and tummy time routine changes, while others may be benefit from helmet therapy. Occasionally, surgery may be necessary to correct differences in head shape, which can allow for appropriate growth and development of the child.

Expert cleft surgeons and speech pathologists work together to comprehensively assess a child’s speech and language. We offer speech services and ensure that home speech therapy programs are optimized. Some children may also be offered a nasal scope speech examination to visualize the motions of the palate during speech. This can then lead to specific recommendations for how we can work together to improve a child’s speech, whether through more therapy, or perhaps a speech surgery.

Our team of dedicated hearing specialists (Audiologists) specialize in caring for children with cleft lip and palate. Routine hearing testing is provided to all patients to identify those you many have hearing difficulty. 

 If testing shows a decrease in hearing, some children may benefit from a hearing aid device. Multiple hearing aid options are available for our patients and the device recommended is tailored to each child’s needs.

Comprehensive genetics evaluation and counseling is provided for all patients through the UC Davis Cleft Team. For those interested, patient-specific genetic testing can be completed.

After an ultrasound shows a potential cleft lip and/or cleft palate, the parents may choose to have a consult with our cleft team to discuss the initial UC Davis Cleft Team plans and to support the family through the care process. 

Our team of experienced social workers provide a wealth of resources and services to optimize health care access, insurance coverage, as well as state and local resources to help your child grow and thrive.

Many of the families cared for within the UC Davis Cleft Team take advantage of opportunities to join support groups to connect with other families and experts about all things related to cleft lip and cleft palate. Depending on what works well for the family, some of these resources may include online chat forums, social media groups, virtual and/or in-person events.