Sometimes there is no gap in the palate but a groove forms in the centre, this means that the muscles have not united, this condition is called submucous cleft. Submucous clefts stay undiagnosed in many cases. Not all cases with submucous cleft develop speech abnormalities and it’s not possible to predict which one of these will develop faulty speech. Presently we tend to evaluate these children with the help of a speech language pathologist at 6 months interval after 1 year of age and operate whenever the child is diagnosed with hyper nasality while speaking.
Just like other cleft palate patients these children can also have feeding issues and are prone to middle ear infections. Please refer to the section on cleft palate for further information.
M.B.B.S., M.S., MCh. (Plastic Surgery) Senior Consultant Aesthetic & Reconstructive Surgery. ( Omit gen surgery)
