How Happy Can a ToothMake a Person?

On Saturday, since his school was also closed for the weekend, my patient, now 8 years old, whose cleft lip I repaired when he was 3 months old, came for a check-up with his family. Seeing my little one, whom I am happy to see every time, was enough to start the day well. But my little one made the real surprise after the examination.

In the cleft lip and palate repair protocol, babies' cleft lips are closed at 3 months of age and cleft palates at 9 months. If there is a cleft in the gum (alveolus), repair of this part is left to the age range of 7-9 years, when the milk teeth fall out and the permanent teeth begin to come in, and gum repair is performed in a third operation.

In my own protocol, while repairing my patients' cleft lips at 3 months of age, I also try to perform the gum repair by taking a piece of bone from the hip bone. In this way, I believe that the bone deficit, completed early while still a baby, can prevent the skeletal insufficiency likely to develop as the baby grows. In addition, while ensuring that my patient, whose gum repair is performed at 3 months, has better oral hygiene, I also spare them an operation that would otherwise be needed in the future.

And this little one of mine had come to show me the new tooth that had come in to replace the canine tooth that fell out. My little one's face and nose were also incredibly symmetrical and beautiful. That tooth, coming through the bone I had placed, showed how right the work I had done was. That tooth was worth the world to me.