The less invasive cleft lip treatment reduces office visits for families and makes it easier for babies to feed
Children’s Minnesota is the first health system in Minnesota to offer a state-of-the-art treatment for babies born with cleft lip. The treatment is designed to ease the burden of care on families and provide a gentler experience for babies during the period before cleft lip repair. It’s available through the cleft and craniofacial service within the ear, nose, throat and facial plastic surgery program at Children’s Minnesota.
New cleft lip treatment at Children’s Minnesota
Traditional presurgical methods for cleft lip have presented challenges for both babies and their families. For example, the conventional nasoalveolar molding (NAM) involves an acrylic mold that sits in the baby’s mouth and is secured in place using tape to their face. It can make feeding the baby difficult and requires frequent specialty clinic visits to get the mold changed, which can be tough on families who live far away.
The new treatment, called PLANA (presurgical lip, alveolus, and nose approximation), is designed to help align the displaced lip, gum line and nose of babies born with a cleft lip. The treatment combines two components.
- LipAlign™: a medical adhesive tape placed on the upper cheeks to bring the cleft lip’s edges closer together.
- NoseAlign® : an aligner made of silicone that is placed in nostrils of a baby to gently shape the displaced nose.
There are no pieces sitting in the baby’s mouth. The less invasive approach allows babies with a cleft lip to feed and it’s gentler overall. It’s designed to be managed at home, reducing the need for frequent clinic appointments and making it more convenient for families.
“We’ve cared for patients born with cleft lip from as far away as Montana, the Dakotas and Upper Michigan. Asking those families to travel from that far away for weekly appointments for NAM molding is not possible,” said Noelle Morrell, speech pathologist in the ENT program at Children’s Minnesota. “This new treatment is a simple yet significant advancement in cleft lip care. After the initial appointment and training with our team, much of the treatment could be managed at home.”
When cleft lip treatment can begin
The cleft lip specialists at Children’s Minnesota will partner with families to help determine if a baby born with a cleft lip would benefit from presurgical treatment. For babies that would benefit, presurgical treatment can begin within the first few weeks of the baby’s life.
“Baby’s tissue, especially the tissue that makes up the nose, is very flexible and mobile for the first three to four weeks of life. It’s much more likely to respond and reduce the size of the cleft lip before we perform the surgical reconstruction,” described Brianne Roby, MD, director of the cleft program at Children’s Minnesota. “Families who learn their baby will be born with a cleft may worry their child’s entire life will be different. Our goal as a team is to partner with families and give their child the best possible care so their child thrives.”
Babies use the PLANA treatment until their first surgery to repair the cleft lip, which typically happens at 3-4 months of age.
The new treatment is offered at the Children’s Minnesota ENT clinics in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
