[Treatment of labio-palate clefts]

The reeducation of the patient afflicted with an unilateral or bilateral complete cleft of the lip and/or palate (CLP) needs many years of treatment. A new approach to the sequence and timing repair is based on a very sound concept of the function of the tongue in new-born which is disturbed in CLP and thus deviates the swallowing. The tongue must be educated early in order to assure its physiological pressure towards the anterior palate during swallowing. Furthermore, this seems to improve the maxillary growth. The first long term follow-ups are now available and suggest that the method is effective.