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Medical Question
> Definition of Facial Structure |
| Following Info would help you out when you are
visiting a physician/hospital.
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[img]http://www.craniology.org/vgallery/pix/GDIRSkull/frontv1.gif[/img]
The above diagrams demonstrate the areas usually discussed during cleft management. These terms may seem strange but they will help you understand what is being discussed by specialists at clinics when you attend.
The lip has three layers, skin, muscle and the lining inside the mouth (mucosa). The lip has several anatomical features which will often be referred to by the surgeon when talking about planning and the result of surgery.
[img]http://cleft.craniology.org/images/insidemouth.gif[/img]
The palate consists of a hard palate which is the solid base for the teeth of the upper jaw, and a soft palate which is muscular and mobile. It is the soft palate which is so important in both speech and in preventing the escape of air and food from the mouth into the nose. The uvula hangs down from the soft palate and helps the palate form a good seal between the mouth and the nose. Both the soft and hard palates are made up of three layers. There is an oral (mouth) layer, a bone and muscle layer and a nasal (nose) layer. The hard palate has bone in the middle layer and the soft palate has muscle in the middle layer. There are five different groups of muscles all of which are involved in speech and all of which are affected by a cleft palate.
The nose is a complex structure consisting of skin and cartilage (gristle) on a bony framework. The ala is often collapsed on the side of a cleft lip and the columella is often pulled to the opposite side of the cleft. The septum (the gristle separating the two nostrils inside the nose) is often displaced into one or other nostril causing difficulty in breathing on that side. |
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