Pathology, behind which the name "wolf mouth" is fixed, is often found in newborn children. With a split sky, every thousandth baby is born today. The wolf mouth is not a disease, but an innate syndrome, in which a fissure is formed in the soft and hard palate of the fetus in the womb of the mother. In addition, the pathology may be an accompanying syndrome of Stickler, Van der Wood or Loyce-Dits.
The wolf mouth looks like a large cleft that is formed between the upper lip divided into two parts. There is no border between the nasal and oral cavities, therefore the child has abnormalities of breathing, swallowing and sucking. The vice manifests itself in one of four forms:
- splitting of the soft palate;
- cleavage of soft and partial cleavage of the hard palate;
- absolute one-sided splitting of the hard and soft palate;
- absolute two-sided splitting.
This maxillofacial defect is the most common, but one can get rid of it.
Causes of malformation
The main cause of this maxillofacial defect is a gene mutation. Bones of the skeleton of the baby are formed during the first two months of pregnancy. If in the process of fetal development this process is influenced by a number of factors, then the coalescence of the bone processes of the upper jaw with a small bone at the base of the skull (vomer) does not occur. For this reason, the muscles are not properly attached, which leads to the formation of a gap in the soft sky. In this case, the sex of the child does not matter, and the development of mental and physical abilities of the wolf mouth is not affected.
The causes of the formation of the wolf mouth can also be external. So, the risk of this pathology in the fetus increases if the pregnant woman before conception and during the first trimester used alcohol or drugs, smoked , suffered from severe toxicosis or excess weight (obesity of 2-3 degrees). Environmental factors, age (35 years and older), and heredity, and emotional upheavals during pregnancy, also have a deleterious effect.
Treatment and prognosis
To see the very fact of the presence of the fetus of the wolf mouth can be on ultrasound as early as the 14th week of pregnancy, but the type of cleavage and precise diagnosis will be established only after the birth. The process of childbirth is often complicated, because of the splitting the child swallows the amniotic fluid, which sometimes leads to the development of aspiration pneumonia. In addition, children with this congenital malformation it is difficult to breathe by themselves, and for sucking and swallowing it is necessary to use special obturators closing the slit. For this reason, they gain weight worse than their peers, and respiratory diseases are more frequent. But most of all, the quality of speech suffers. Even surgery with a wolf mouth does not guarantee that speech will become correct. But the operation, and not alone, is a must!
Treatment of the wolf mouth begins at the age of eight months. First, plastic surgeons correct defects in the soft palate.
For optimal results, two to seven plastic surgeries may be necessary. In addition to surgeons, orthodontists, ENTs, dentists, child psychologists and speech therapists should help a small patient. If medical and psychological help are combined with occupations at home, then by the age of six or seven, the baby will not be anything different from his peers, can live fully, play sports and study in a regular school.