Kids who have had surgery for cleft lip/palate seem to have less visible scars than those done a generation ago.
How exactly have surgery methods improved?
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I was born with a cleft lip in 1995, and surgeries started that same year. I was very fortunate that there was a robust program for cleft lip treatment in my area, and I had a [wonderful doctor](https://www.plasticsurgery.org/for-medical-professionals/publications/psn-extra/news/forget-paris-plastic-surgeon-forges-a-lasting-legacy-in-hershey-pa) who performed all of my surgeries from infancy through my teenage years.
I believe I’ve had 8 surgeries for my cleft lip and associated issues, and mine was fairly minor- thankfully I didn’t have a cleft palate, and it wasn’t bilateral.
After more extensive surgeries as an infant, they continued to do surgeries as I aged and my facial features developed. The three I remember are one just before I started kindergarten, where they did something to smooth out a bump in my lip, a bone graft from my thigh to my upper jaw when I was about 9 (and they took out an extra tooth I had), and then when I was 15, and they considered my face developed enough, they evened out my nose.
As a child I also had specialized ongoing care, including speech therapy and specialized braces to get my teeth into place for the bone graft surgery.
Now people really don’t notice that I had a cleft lip. There are still a couple small scars running through my upper lip to just under my left nostril, but it just looks like a somewhat off-center part to my mustache. I also have a “short” tooth at the sight of the bone graft that I’m a tiny bit self-conscious about, but not enough to do anything, and nobody else seems to notice it until I point it out.
I think some of what has improved that helps to make the surgeries less noticeable is follow-up. Rather than just superficially repairing the cosmetic damage, there were programs in place to ensure that I was able to be supported throughout the process and receive the required care as I developed.
This was not made easier by insurance companies (they claimed that at least the last procedure was only cosmetic, and didn’t want to cover it), so other people may have had different experiences
There’s a joke on the new Bill Burr standup where he talks about how when he was a kid, you could tell from across the street that someone had a fake leg. And now fake legs are so good, you aren’t allowed to race against people with regular legs in the Olympics.
As someone who was born with a cleft palate and age 36, mine looks good. you can tell something is off, but i notice it more than others do. i don’t go around following plastic surgeries of clefts, but i’m curious how much better it would have been had I been born today
I think it really depends on the surgeon, still. My husband was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate in the late 1970s. He had surgery as an infant and it was decent, though he had a somewhat noticeable scar. Then in the mid-1990s he had a revision done that took some cartilage from his septum and was used to fill in his lip so he has a pronounced Cupid’s bow now. His repair really isn’t noticeable now, and medical professionals are usually surprised to learn he had a cleft lip. He doesn’t really have the cleft-lip “buzz” to his voice that can commonly occur with cleft patients. He also doesn’t have the flatness the some have between their lips and nose, nor does his nose kind of “pull down” like a lot of repairs seem to. My pre-teen daughter has a little girl in her grade who has had an obvious cleft lip repair that has the flatness and pull like the older surgeries used to have, so some surgeons are still following the old ways. Hopefully they continue to improve.
The surgeries had cleft lip surgery so it stands to reason they would now be less visible due to the surgery.
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