This post is going to give a brief overview on the craniofacial condition: cleft lip. Cleft lip is a condition where there is a failure in the fusion of two important structures during development of the human fetus. These two structures must fuse on 2 different sides of the upper lip. Failure of one side leads to a “unilateral” cleft lip, and failure of both leads to a “bilateral” cleft lip. There are many causes for this condition, such as genetics, drugs/alcohol/tobacco that the mother ingests while pregnant, and many other environmental influences. A major problem that cleft lip babies experience are issues with suckling during feeding from the bottle and breast. This leads to poor nutritional intake of the child. It is important to see a plastic or oral and maxillofacial surgeon as soon as possible to seek proper and necessary treatment! To treat cleft lip, surgery is needed. Surgery involves suturing important structures of the mouth together, an important muscle around the lip and the skin that sits on top of it. Once the cleft lip has been surgically fixed, major surgeries are rarely needed in the future. Our next topic covered will be Cleft Palate. -MC     Sources: https://www.mayoclinic.org/-/media/kcms/gbs/patient-consumer/images/2013/08/26/10/45/ds00738_im02605_fl7_cleft_lipthu_jpg.png https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/specialty_areas/facial-plastic-reconstructive/reconstructive/cleft-palate.html

Hello everyone,   I hope everyone is staying safe during these difficult times! Recently, I had the privilege of shadowing residents at an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Program - it was one of the best experiences I have ever had. Meeting the residents and seeing how much they do for their patients was truly a humbling experience. I just wanted to make a post about what a typical day in the life was for a resident and some of the awesome procedures I saw along the way.   5:30 AM - Wake up and get ready - had to make sure I brought comfortable shoes as I would be on my feet all day. Caffeinated myself as well. 6:45 AM - Arrive at hospital 7 AM - Morning Rounds - Morning rounds are when all residents gather in a conference room to discuss the previous night and the day's operating room cases. At morning rounds, the residents who were on-call (meaning that they stayed at the hospital overnight to treat emergencies) would report on what came into the hospital last night. Usually, it was people with large cuts on their face from accidents (typically a motor vehicle accident). The residents who were on-call would also check on people who had surgery the previous day to make sure that they had no issues - this was usually done at 6 AM prior to the morning rounds meeting. The game-plan for the day was then discussed, and the residents would be assigned to their designated operations. At around 7:30, morning rounds would wrap up. 7:45/8 - 8:30 - Breakfast - Luckily, the hospital that I was at had a great cafeteria where the residents would eat their meals. I would, once again, caffeinate myself even more. 8:30 - 1:30/2PM - Surgery, Surgery, Surgery - All residents would go to their designated location. Some of the residents would go to the operating [...]

Hello everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself - my name is Michael Cimba and I will be a blogger for Philly Phaces. I am a third year dental student at Penn Dental Medicine and am hoping to one day become an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon. Philly Phaces played a huge role in this decision for me as it made me realize how great of a passion I have for helping those in need. I have hopes and dreams of graduating from residency and then performing surgeries on not only tooth-related issues, but as well as skeletal issues and birth defects, such as Cleft Lip/Palate. These surgeries are extremely life changing for people, and I hope to one day be the provider behind them. I also hope to do Mission Trips in the future after residency where I would be flying with a healthcare team to countries where these birth defects are high and provide care to them for little to no cost. Prior to dental school, I went to a small school in Minnesota called Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. I played NCAA hockey there for 4 years and have a great passion for the sport. Towards the tail-end of my dental career, I hope to be involved with professional hockey teams as their team oral surgeon. I will be blogging on my path to becoming an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, what can be expected from some of these surgeries, and all things related to Philly Phaces. Thanks for reading and I look forward to blog about my passion! MC