Pharyngeal Flap

[Jill]

My son Bradley (4) was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. He has been in speech for 2 yrs.


At his recent Clinic visit, the team said that speech therapy has helped him all it can for now and that he'd need a pharyngeal flap for further speech improvements.


I want to make sure this is absolutely neccessary!! The recommendation was made by the Speech Language Pathologist, the ENT said we should wait and see (but wasn't present when the group met), the Surgeon agreed with the Speech Pathologist.


Since none of these are our regular Dr.s, who of our own should I be asking to make sure it's neccessary? I was told to just see our Surgeon.


Thank you for any feedback


Jill


e-mail, mrskuroos@ivillage.com

[SVP623@aol.com]

My son had the pharyngeal flap done 2 years ago when he was 11. My understanding was this procedure should have been done at around 4-6 years old for optimal results. I learned of the procedure on the internet and changed surgeons, because I was upset that the first surgeon did not see the need. My son Greg, did have very good results. His hypernasality was measured before and after at his speech clinic. After the surgery, air leakage was significantly reduced and he did not struggle as much to speak. I wished I had known about this years ago! I encourage you to have it done. We spent one day in the hospital and there was not much pain, just a sore throat and little bleeding.
Susan