Every year, thousands of babies in Peru are born with cleft lip and/or palate! Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is the most common facial birth defect in the world. Approximately 1 in 500-600 children are affected. Cleft lip and palate is present in every country and in all sections of society.
There are many different types of clefts. Cleft can manifest as a cleft lip either on one side of the face (unilateral) or on both sides of the upper lip (bilateral), as a cleft palate, cleft lip and palate or cleft lip and maxilla (upper jaw). Other types of cranio-facial clefts such as lateral clefts or facial clefts are rarer. The combined deformation of cleft lip and palate account for seventy per cent of the cases.
Simple cleft lip
Cleft palate
Left-hand lip and maxilla cleft
Transverse cranio-facial cleft with partial loss of eye
Full cleft of lip and maxilla
Cleft lips and palates develop from the fourth week of pregnancy when the separate parts of the face begin joining together starting from the outside and proceeding inwards. The various types of clefts are then the result.
