Description

27/04/2023 - Lecture ‘The benefit of surgery, the drawback of scars - How interdisciplinary research advances the field of cleft lip and palate’

Guest speaker: Em. Prof. Anne Marie Kuijpers-Jagtman (University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands)

Organiser: Department of Oral Health Sciences

Cleft lip with or without cleft palate, and isolated cleft palate are serious birth defects that affect approximately 1 in every 600 newborn babies. Approximately every 2.5 minutes a child is born with some form of an orofacial cleft somewhere in the world. The healthcare burden for these children and their families is high. Children with clefts need comprehensive, coordinated care by an interdisciplinary team. Presently, the treatment history starts with prenatal counseling as soon as a CLP deformity of the fetus has been detected. Treatment continues from birth until maturity involving, among other actions, several surgeries to close the defect, genetic screening, speech and hearing assessments and management of middle ear infections, orthodontic and facial orthopedic management, psychological counseling, and dental and prosthodontic care.

2D and 3D-imaging techniques have taught us that each surgical intervention can have its own specific effect on subsequent maxillofacial growth. It is clear from experimental and clinical research that surgical repair of the cleft deformity results in a facial growth pattern that differs from the non-cleft individual. Research into the development and characteristics of scar tissue will translate into clinical applications reaching our goal that the benefits of surgery outweigh the adverse effects. Close collaboration with scientists in biomedical basic sciences, 3D-technology in health care, health technology assessment, and other science fields provides unique opportunities to aim for a better future for individuals with an orofacial cleft. 

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