CLEFT-LIP MISSION : The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), in conjunction with Alliance for Smile team and Smile Train Organization have once again put wide smiles on the lips of indigent patients with varied degrees of cleft –lip and palate. The mission which is in its 5th year, saw a total of eleven patients being operated.
Dr. Taiwo Omosebi, LASUTH Consultant Plastic Surgeon noted that the success rate of the surgeries are phenomenal. “We have a team that consists the plastic surgeons, , the ENT surgeons, Speech therapists, nutritionists, nurses as well as the social welfare staff.
According to Dr. Omosebi, “we all work together in managing the patients, most especially the kids and they turn out to have good speaking abilities in the long run. This, we ensure by sending them to the speech therapist after they have completely recuperated from the surgery. There, they work on regularizing their speech and we manage them so they talk without making their voice nasal. Their parents attest that the children’s speech improves gradually.’
He further opined that cleft-lip surgeries are best carried out when the individual is a toddler, most especially from 3months and above, ‘’hat way necessary corrections would have been made and effected as the child grows.’ “That is not to say that we don’t operate on adults, too as we have discovered people of marriageable age with cleft-lip. ‘
The Alliance for Smile and Smile Train Organization, both from the United States of America in conjunction with LASUTH have performed a total of 24 surgeries in 2019.
