New treatment for cleft lip babies

The 3D imaging study should help to revolutionise treatment

Babies born with cleft lips and palates are to have their treatment revolutionised through new three-dimensional cameras.

Researchers at Glasgow University have been given £200,000 in Lottery cash to spend on the cameras, which will be used to carry out a study to improve the way corrective surgery is carried out.

One in 700 babies in the United Kingdom are born with cleft lips and cleft palates.

They occur when parts of the face fail to join together properly during pregnancy and can cause problems with feeding, speech and misplaced teeth.

Treatments are normally carried out on very young children but for some sufferers corrective surgery can continue into adulthood.

Lottery award to carry out study

Experts in the field of cleft palate and lip improvements say reliable studies of children with normally developed faces and those with the lip and jaw deformities are almost non-existent.

But the Cleft Lip and Palate Association and the University of Glasgow believe the lack of such vital research is about to end - with help from the National Lottery Charities Board money.

It will pay for the 3D cameras and fund an extensive study of children with and without the cleft problems.

Dr Asraf Ayoub, of Glasgow Dental Hospital, which is involved in the research, said: "A primary aim of treatment is to normalise facial appearance.

"To achieve this goal it is important to be able to assess normal facial morphology and any deviation from the norm.

Study of facial growth

"It is astonishing that no-one has ever studied normal facial growth and development in babies and yet this is fundamental for successful management of cleft lip and palate in children.

"In children with this condition the most important surgery is carried out during the first few months of their lives but we do not have a valid measure for detecting the likely changes following surgery."

The 3D imaging technique has been developed by the Turing Institute in collaboration with Glasgow university's Dental Hospital and the 3D-matic Faraday Partnership.

The children involved in the study will have their faces recorded by the computerised digital stills cameras at the age of three and again at the age of five.