Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Free cleft lip treatment for poor children

Staff Reporter

One-stop centre for all kinds of facial deformities Foundation provides one-stop centre for facial deformities

CHENNAI: Underprivileged children traumatised by congenital facial deformities can now avail of quality treatment free of cost offered by a newly formed charitable foundation.

The Cleft and Cranio-Facial Foundation, envisioned as a one-stop centre for all kinds of facial deformities under the fold of Rajan Dental Institute, will integrate diverse aspects of treatment ranging from parental counselling to speech therapy and corrective surgery.

"The objective is to combine charity with good science in terms of providing internationally comparable cleft care protocols," R. Gunaseelan, medical director, said on Monday.

The institute has sub specialities of modern dentistry such as oral and maxillofacial surgery, endodontics and periodontics and expects to treat about 150-200 patients a year. Underprivileged children are the target , but the Foundation is ready to treat patients of any age.

Effective correction of facial deformities involves extended follow-up, repeat surgeries and high-treatment costs, all of which have contributed to late reporting of the problem and drop-outs midway into the correction course.

"The outcomes are much better if the intervention is done as early as possible," Dr. Gunaseelan said. Speech-hearing impairment could aggravate the victim's trauma.The treatment sequence for this congenital disorder should ideally should begin at birth, palate correction at a year and a half, reviewing speech at three years and planning a pharyngoplasty, bone grafting at ten years and scar revisions at 18. A patient, who requires five phased-out surgeries, would normally have to pay about Rs. 1.50 lakhs.

N. Samman, director, Hong Kong Cleft Lip and Palate Unit, who formally opened the Foundation, said his institution would extend all advisory and technical assistance to the Foundation's mission. The Foundation has a start-up corpus of Rs. 4 lakhs and wants to launch fund-raising projects to sustain the programme.

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