You may see Santa and his reindeer streaming thru the sky tonight or see them on those radar images TV newscasters use to chart his path from the North Pole. If so, let's hope that he's delivering 3-D printers which'll help countries around the world take better care of cleft lip and palate kids. 3D printers.What do I mean? Well, let me first describe how 3D printers work in case you're not familiar with this cutting-edge technology. According to one source, the first step in the printing of … [Read more...]
Surgery for other orofacial issues like oral cancer.
Some of the oral surgeons, head-and-neck experts, and plastic craniofacial surgeons I often write about also deal with accident victims and cancer patients. Let's look now at one of the conditions these patients endure, oral cancer. (I'll deal with patients with skin cancer and gunshot or auto crash trauma another time.) Before getting to the surgical issues regarding oral cancer, let's examine the basics of this cancer that strikes about 43,000 new Americans each year, according to The Oral … [Read more...]
What’s different about Joaquin Phoenix besides his cleft lip?
It's not just his 'facial difference! Denies his Cleft Lip Actually, Phoenix has created controversy about his lip. He says something--but not a "cleft"--just happened when his mother felt pain at one point during her pregnancy. (Fellow actor Stacey Keach "owns" his cleft.) If "something happened to Phoenix' mom, this had to have been around the 6th week when most cleft lips and palates form. Many doctors feel that his famous scar is from a microform cleft lip, also known as a "forme … [Read more...]