The Cleft and Craniofacial Centre is the only dedicated comprehensive service in Singapore. All craniofacial patients, including those with craniomaxillofacial trauma, should be primarily referred to the centre for initial assessment and subsequent treatment.

Children who have dental problems can now seek treatment at the Cleft and Craniofacial Centre. The Centre's Paediatric Dentistry Service provides a comprehensive range of services for patients not older than 18 years old, with or without craniofacial disorders, as well as children with special needs. The full range of comprehensive dental services to healthy as well as physically compromised children include:

Location    : Level 5, Women's Tower
Telephone  : 6394 1521 or 6394 8657 (enquiry)
Fax           : 6394 1524

Goals and aims
Congenital and non-congenital conditions managed
Craniofacial Support Group

Goals and Aims

The centre aims to provide integrated case management to ensure quality and continuity of patient care and longitudinal follow-up.  Each patient requires comprehensive, inter-disciplinary treatment planning to achieve maximum rehabilitation with efficient use of parent and patient time and resources.

In accordance with the American Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Association’s Guidelines on Parameters for the Evaluation and Treatment of Patients with Craniofacial Anomalies, the centre:

• Maintains a coordinator with a listed 24-hour telephone number.  We also maintain centralised and comprehensive records for each patient, including history, diagnoses, reports of evaluations, treatment plans, reports of treatment, and supporting documentation such as photographs, radiographs, dental models, and audio-taped speech recordings.
• Ensures the provision of coordinated care for patients and families, and assists patients and families in understanding, coordinating, and implementing treatment plans.
• Runs monthly Combined Clinics to evaluate patients at regularly scheduled intervals. The frequency and specific content of these evaluations are determined by the condition and needs of the patient and family.
• Develops longitudinal treatment plans for each patient that is modified as necessitated by craniofacial growth and development, treatment outcomes, and therapeutic advances.
• Weighs all treatment decisions against the expected outcomes and related factors such as facial growth, hearing, speech, dentition, and psychosocial impact on the patient and family.
• Assists families in locating resources for financial assistance necessary to meet the needs of each patient.
• Through a dedicated Antenatal Counselling Program, promotes early identification of children with craniofacial anomalies through programs designed to inform delivery room personnel, neonatal care personnel, and primary care providers in the community about these birth defects.
• Will provide educational programs for hospital personnel and primary care providers addressing feeding and other critical aspects of early health care for children with craniofacial anomalies.
• Aims to promote understanding of, and sensitivity to, the needs of patients by providing educational information about craniofacial anomalies and related disorders to parents and patients, to other professional people, and to the general public.
• Runs a monthly Speech Evaluation Clinic run for joint assessment and subsequent management of patients referred for velopharyngeal incompetence.
• Maintains the Craniofacial Laboratory for long term clinical and basic research.
• Organises and coordinates all the allied disciplines involved in the management of the craniofacial patient i.e. physical, occupational and speech therapists; dietitians; medical social workers; and psychiatrists and psychologists.

Congenital and Non-Congenital Conditions Managed

The Cleft and Craniofacial Centre is a dedicated referral centre for the management of specific congenital as well as non-congenital conditions. The centre specialises in managing:

• Oral and Dental Health Education
• Craniofacial Syndromes
  • Hemifacial Microsomia
  • Treacher Collins
  • Tessier Craniofacial Clefts
  • Dysmorphism
• Congenital Craniofacial
  • Craniosynostosis
  • Hypertelorism
  • Frontonasal Dysplasia
  • Encephaloceles
• Congenital Cleft Lip and Palate
• Craniomaxillofacial Trauma
  • Primary management
  • Secondary Deformities
• Dentofacial Deformities
  • Malocclusions
  • Mandibular growth disturbances
  • Facial Asymmetry
  • TMJ problems
• Vascular Malformations
• Paediatric Plastic
  • Craniofacial/H & N tumors/Fibrous Dysplasia
  • Pigmentation/Giant Hairy Naevi

Useful Links:
Department of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery