Surgeries

When are the surgeries?

0 - 3 months
Infants with a double sided cleft will get a pretreatment with plasters, to make the lip-closure operation more easier.
 

3 months
Mostly de lip-closure operation will be done at the age of three months. During this operation there also will be a first nose correction.

9 months
The back (soft) palate will be closed at the age of nine months. This is often combined with the placement of eardrum tubes. The front (hard) part of the palate will also be closed if it is possible.

8 - 9 years
Around the age of eight there will be judged if it is necessary to put a piece of bone in de jaw gap to close the jaw. 

17 years and older
Last lip-, nose-, scar tissue- en jaw corrections.  The nose- and jaw corrections will mostly be done when the child has been seventeen, but sometimes earlier.

(Schisisteam Friesland, n.d.)

These are operations and treatments which are performed in the Netherlands.

At T.E.S.S. Unlimited in Guatemala the children will get an operation when they are three months old and when they are two years old. At three months old they will close the lip and at two years old they will close the palate (T.E.S.S. Unlimited, 2013).