It’s likely you’ve heard of cleft lip and palate, however it only impacts around 1 in 700 children in the UK.

Cleft lip and palate are birth defects that occur when a baby’s lip or mouth do not form properly during pregnancy. Together, these birth defects commonly are called “orofacial clefts”. The two can occur separately or together in the one child.

The lip forms between the fourth and seventh weeks of pregnancy. As a baby develops during pregnancy, body tissue and special cells from each side of the head grow toward the centre of the face and join together to make the face. This includes features like the lips. A cleft lip means that this didn’t happen fully, leaving one or two slits that can continue up into the nostril. A cleft palate occurs when the tissue that makes up the roof of the mouth does not join together completely during pregnancy.

Difficulties.

Though it’s not that common a problem in the UK, in countries like the Philippines it’s an issue. The Philippines have the highest rate of children born with cleft lip and palate. In the UK we are fortunate enough to have the NHS who deal with children born with cleft lip and palate within the child’s first year. However poor countries do not have this option and corrective surgery is expensive, meaning children are likely to suffer with it throughout their lives. Issues children with cleft lip and palate are likely to experience include:

• Difficulty eating and feeding. Babies with a cleft palate may be unable to breastfeed or feed from a normal bottle because they can’t form a good seal with their mouth. If they don’t have corrective surgery, they may have issues eating as they get older.
• Hearing problems. Children with cleft lip and palate are more susceptible to hearing difficulties. For example; ear infections and a build-up of fluid in their ears (glue ear), which may affect their hearing.
• Dental problems. It could mean that their teeth don’t develop correctly and put them at a higher risk of tooth decay.
• Speech difficulties. If a cleft palate isn’t repaired, it can lead to speech problems such as unclear or nasal-sounding speech when a child is older.

Causes.

Although the cause is widely speculated and largely unknown, it can be related to other birth defects like 22q11 deletion syndrome (sometimes known as DiGeorge or velocardiofacial syndrome) and Pierre Robin sequence. However cases unrelated to this are a mystery. It is associated with; obesity during pregnancy, smoking and drinking during pregnancy, lack of folic acid during pregnancy and the taking of certain medicines during pregnancy.

Ana Nolvia Lopez, Operation Smile

Treatment.

In the UK children with cleft lip and palate are treated at specialist NHS cleft centres. They will also usually have a long-term care plan that outlines the treatments and assessments they’re likely to need as they grow up. They will also likely need; surgery, feeding support, hearing monitoring, speech and language therapy and good monitoring of their dental hygiene. Children in less fortunate circumstances, like those in the Philippines, won’t be so lucky.

Operation Smile.

Operation Smile is a charity that works across the world to help less fortunate children with cleft lip and palate problems. They will travel to different towns and perform FREE surgeries for children with cleft lip and palate and give them back the life they deserve. However, as a charity, Operation Smile relies on donations. It costs around £185 to pay for a child’s surgery and we at DefactoDentists.com are trying to raise as much as we can to make that happen!

(Operation Smile Photo by Erin Lubin)

All you have to do is head over to the listing section of our website, search for your dentist and leave them a review. For every review, we will donate £1 to Operation Smile! All it will cost you is two minutes of your time!

Who are we?

Do you find yourself searching: “dentist near me” or “dentist in my area?” Then we have a solution for you. We are DefactoDentists.com and we are the solution to your dental search. Simply visit our website, type in your location and we’ll find the perfect dentist in your area! You can even visit the site to keep up to date with health news through our blogs! If you’re a dentist, get in touch and list your practice!

Corporate responsibility is something that Defacto takes seriously. In partnership with Operation Smile, we want to positively change the direction of as many children’s lives as possible.

How are we going to achieve this? Simple, with your help!

For the next two months (May and June), DefactoDentists.com will donate £1 to Operation Smile for every review left for clinics on our website. By doing this, we can create smiles that will last for decades.

Operation Smile was founded by plastic and craniofacial surgeon, Dr William (Bill) P. Magee Jr and his wife Kathleen S. Magee, a former nurse and clinical social worker. It is an international medical charity with a worldwide network of credentialed medical volunteers from over 80 countries. These volunteers are committed to helping improve the health and lives of children across over 60 countries.

Jacqueline. (Operation Smile – Peter Stuckings)

Since being founded, Operation Smile has devoted themselves to providing the safest care to their patients.

They do this through: established care centres wherever possible to give children ongoing care, provide training and education for local medical professionals so they can provide care within their own communities and providing free surgeries. To date, they have provided more than 240,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities. Take a moment to realise how dynamically this changes a small child’s life!

Defacto makes an impact with each and every review.

Not only do patient reviews boost the online presence of dental clinics across the UK, it also shows potential patients where they should be heading for their next appointment.

How do you get involved? All it will cost you is two minutes of your time. All we ask is that you post a review for your dentists on their page at www.defactodentists.com. We do all the rest!

Philippines, August 2013.(Operation Smile Photo – Peter Stuckings)

Follow the link at the bottom of the page, search for your dentist and leave a review, that’s it! The more reviews we get the more we donate, a cleft palette surgery costs around £185 and we want to pay for several!

What if you cannot find your dentist on our website? This would be surprising. As the UK’s leading dental lead generation company, they probably are listed. If not, don’t worry. Send us an email and we’ll get them listed for you to review!

For any more information, you can email us at [email protected] or find us on social media @defactodentists. You can also use the hashtag #OperationDefacto to show your support!

Corporate responsibility is something that Defacto takes seriously. In partnership with Operation Smile, we want to positively change the direction of as many children’s lives as possible.

How are we going to achieve this? Simple, with your help!

For the next two months (May and June), DefactoDentists.com will donate £1 to Operation Smile for every review left for clinics on our website. By doing this, we can create smiles that will last for decades.

Operation Smile was founded by plastic and craniofacial surgeon, Dr William (Bill) P. Magee Jr and his wife Kathleen S. Magee, a former nurse and clinical social worker. It is an international medical charity with a worldwide network of credentialed medical volunteers from over 80 countries. These volunteers are committed to helping improve the health and lives of children across over 60 countries.

Jacqueline. (Operation Smile – Peter Stuckings)

Since being founded, Operation Smile has devoted themselves to providing the safest care to their patients through: established care centres wherever possible to give children ongoing care, provide training and education for local medical professionals so they can provide care within their own communities and providing free surgeries. To date, they have provided more than 240,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities. Take a moment to realise how dynamically this changes a small child’s life!

Operation Smile: Defacto makes an impact with each and every review.

When a patient reviews their experience in your clinic, your page is likely to be seen by more people, generating further new patient enquiries, so this truly is worthwhile for everyone. Furthermore, each review is automatically reposted as a Google review, boosting your own website’s SEO value.

How do you get involved? This will have very little impact on your surgery time, but a substantial impact on your new patient enquiries, as well as benefiting so many kids. All we ask is that you request a review from your patient on your page on www.defactodentists.com. We do all the rest!

Fatimzahra Aboulfateh BEFORE and AFTER (Photo cred – Rohanna Mertens) (Morocco)

What if you cannot find your practice on our website? This would be surprising. As the UK’s leading dental lead generation company, you probably are listed. If not, don’t worry. Click this page and you will be taken to our dentist’s section. Simply click the Defacto Listing option, fill in some brief details and we will take care of making your page as effective as possible. This is 100% FREE so there is no risk in you getting involved. It really is as simple as that!

For any more information, you can email us at [email protected] or find us on social media @defactodentists. You can also use the hashtag #OperationDefacto to show your support!