SMILES

My 6 year old daughter has VCF with a submucous cleft palate
and strong nasality. A pharyngeal flap or palate repair have both
been proposed. If you or your children have VCF and have had
either of the above operations I would really appreciate your
comments regarding the benefits and side effects etc My email:
ekandco@msn.com

I also have a 6 year old daughter with a cleft Palate.
Childrens hospital in Philadelphia recommends that she have the
surgury & NYU medical center recommends speech therapy. The
video floroscopy showed partial closure and to me that is what
the flap will give you. Has your child had speech therapy? I want
to go for a third opinion, where have you gone?

I am 49 years of age and at 16 years of age I had the flap
done. I highly recommend it. Since the children are so young I
believe its well worth it. All I can tell you is that I had many
people teasing me when I was a child and after the surgery it was
like night and day. I had to unlearn all of the things speech
therapy had taught me but there are advantages as well. Those
being the discipline of learning new ways to talk etc. I don't
know what the stats are to having this done at an earlier age but
it seems to me to be a good one. Hope this helps some.