THE EFFECT OF OBTURATOR FOR CLEFT LIP AND PALATE INFANTS: A CASE REPORT

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Journal of the Korean Academy of Pediatric Dentistry 1997;24(2):352-360.
Published online May 31, 1997.

THE EFFECT OF OBTURATOR FOR CLEFT LIP AND PALATE INFANTS: A CASE REPORT

구순 구개열 신생아에 적용한 Obturator의 효과에 관한 증례보고

홍성준, 최영철, 이긍호

경희대학교 치과대학 소아치과학교실

Abstract

It has been reported that There is a relatively high incidence of congenital cleft lip and palate among congenital anomalies. Children with the cleft lip and palate confront various problems ranging from feeding difficulties as infants to frequent ear infections, compromised speech, aberrant dentofacial development, malocclusion and esthetic impairment with its unfavorable effects on the psychosocial adaptation of the individual. Management of these patients is a process that starts in infancy and continues on into adulthood. Through a team approach, professionals from various fields convene to assess the needs of the child and to assist the parents in dealing with the situation. A pediatric dentist, one of the team, must advise the parents the way of feeding or make an obturator for normal feeding and weight gain of infants with cleft lip and/or palate. An obturator can aid nursing, stimulate orofacial development, help develop the palatal shelves, prevent tongue distortions, prevent nasal septum irritation, decrease chance of ear infections, expand collaped maxillary segments, constrict the expanded anterior part of the maxilla, reposition the premaxilla, and help the parents psychologically. Three cases of infants with cleft lip and palate were managed with the obturator at the Dept. of Pediatric Dentistry, Kyung Hee University. In all cases, infants showed normal feeding and weight gaining after the insertion of the obturator.