Blog

Teeth are made up of complex interconnected minerals. The enamel is made up mostly of fluoride, calcium, magnesium and trace amounts of nitrogen. These elements are bonded together, but these bonds can be broken, and the minerals can be leached out of the teeth. Usually it is one of two things that do this; food or bacteria.

Sometimes a tooth can be so badly damaged that nothing can be done to save it, and the tooth has to be extracted. A good dentist will do everything to try and prevent an extraction, and to save living, healthy teeth, and to avoid the use of prosthetics. But the time will come when the tooth dies, or becomes so decayed or so infected that keeping it is simply no longer an option. Usually teeth that are so far gone cause quite a bit of pain, and patients are just happy to get rid of the nuisance.

Cleft palate is usually thought of as a problem of the past by Western people, but very regrettably they are wrong. Cleft palate is alive and well, and is alive even in Western countries. Some preventative measures and corrective surgeries have made cleft palate and cleft lip a thing of the past, but for many millions of people it is a reality they still have to face today. Let’s take a look at what this condition implies, and what we mean when we talk about cleft palate or cleft lips.