July is National Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness month. 

Cleft Lip and Palate Facts:

• It is one of the most common birth defects here in the United States. 
• About one in 1,600 children are born with a cleft lip and palate. 
• One in 2,800 are born with cleft lip and one in 1,700 are born with just a cleft palate. 

Occurrences in the United States

• 2,651 children are born with cleft palate only
• 4,437 with a cleft lip and/or palate

The causes of it are not entirely known. There are some genetic conditions that are associated with cleft lip and/or palate but there are also a lot of unknowns about it. 

Things what may be associated with cleft lip and palate:

• Certain medications
• Diabetes
• Drinking
• Smoking

None of those are directly linked to it. 

How much does it cost to have a cleft?

The best data I came across was close to 30 years old. In the 90s, they used data from 1988 medical costs and estimated $101,000. I found something that was slightly more recent, 1994, the average cost was about $92,000. The range was $29,000 to a $500,000.

Fast forward 30 years and we have a whole new issues because a lot of kids around my age are having a second round of surgeries as adults, which is incurring additional medical costs that probably were not factored in or even aware of back in 1988 or 1994.

Most of that data that I looked at was coming from childhood surgeries, which is obviously the most common. While not every adult has a cleft lip and/or palate is has additional surgeries as an adult. But those that due often run into issues with surgeries failing, which can lead to repeat surgeries.

There are a lot of other costs associated with other needs that children will have and I will be talking about that more next week. 

Until then, if you would like to support cleft lip and palate repair around the world, you can help me and Smile Train with the Transform Challenge.