Cleft palate is a cosmetic and functional challenge for victims and their families. Depending on severity, it could occur alone or as part of a more extensive defect involving lip and nasal defects. Surgery corrects the appearance problem in cleft palate but does not address other problems you have have. For instance, as a cleft palate patient, you'll likely experience difficulty separating your nasal cavity from your mouth while speaking. Though other people usually do this unconsciously, cleft palate sufferers need exercises to help correct these functional problems.
Cleft Palate Complications
If you know someone who had cleft palate treated as a child, you might have noticed a nasal tone and articulating problems associated with their speech. You are also predisposed to hearing loss as a result of frequent middle ear infections as a cleft palate sufferer. The extent to which these manifest in later life depends on the quality surgical treatment received as a child. Surgery closes the defect, but after this, you need cleft palate exercises help you eliminate or at least minimize other complications.
Speech Correction Exercises
For proper sound, the nasal cavity needs to be properly shut-off from the mouth during speech.You need help with achieving this closure as a cleft palate sufferer. A graded speech exercise called velopharyngeal resistance training, which involves speaking against airway resistance, helps to strengthen the muscles responsible for this closure, reports a 2002 edition of "Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal." In that report, researchers used this exercise to significantly reduce nasal sounding speech in cleft palate sufferers. Nonspeech exercises like sucking, blowing and swallowing have been tried to help cleft palate sufferers but were found to be of little value.
Hearing Loss Exercises
About 75 percent of cleft lip and palate patients suffer from hearing tube deficiencies. If you had cleft palate, that means you are prone to middle ear infections. Repeated middle ear infections predispose you to conductive hearing loss. To avoid this, Trujillo, a Venezuelan phoniatrician designed an exercise to artificially drain the middle ear. It achieved effective drainage of secretions from the middle ear early enough before infection set in, which helped to prevent middle ear infections and consequent deafness as reported in June 1994 edition of "International Journal of Phoniatrics."
Effectiveness of Exercises
The benefit you receive from cleft palate exercises drastically reduces with age. A study published in a 1990 issue of "Czas Stomatol" found that 84 percent of patients that did not receive early treatment with exercises suffered from various degrees of speech problems. Correcting your speech in adulthood is also more difficult because of your proneness to hearing problems as a cleft palate sufferer. You need to be treated early to benefit the most.
References
- American Society of Plastic Surgeons: Pediatric Plastic Surgery Counseling Guide: Congenital Anomalies
- "The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal"; Efficacy of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure for Treatment of Hypernasality;David P. Kuehn, Peter B. Imrey, Lucrezia Tomes et al;May 2002
- "International Journal of Phoniatrics"; Prevention of Conductive Hearing Loss in Cleft Palate Patients;June 1994Lila Trujillo;
- "Czas Stomatol"; Articulation and nasalization in palatal cleft; Dobrowolska-Pietron B; November-December 1990
- "International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology"; The High Prevalence of Otitis Media With Effusion In Children With Cleft Lip And Palate As Compared To Children Without Clefts; Traci Flynn Et Al; July 2009
