Jargon buster
cleft lip and palate
A cleft lip is a gap in the upper lip and a cleft palate is a gap in the roof of the mouth. This condtion sometimes run in families.
View the full jargon busterPlastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Cleft Lip and Palate Service
Contact: (0191) 282 9192 - Ms Liz Cunliffe, Directorate Manager
The Cleft Lip and Palate team provides highly specialised care, treatment and support for patients and families from across the North East of England. We offer a comprehensive service for babies, children and adults with cleft lip and palate including alveolar bone graft surgery.
Committed to providing safe, up-to-date clinical care
Our service is operated by a nationally-regarded and experienced multi-disciplinary team of specialists, including a surgeon, speech and language therapists, psychologists, specialist nurses, dental professionals and medical photographers.
We combine this high level of specialist experience with an innovative approach to adopting new and proven technologies and techniques. For example, for some lip wounds we use glue, rather than stitches, removing the need for further use of anaesthetic when they are taken out.
One of our surgeons carried out our 500th cleft lip operation here at the Royal Victoria Infirmary earlier this year - click here to find out more.
Specialist care and support where and when you need it
The Cleft Lip and Palate Service is based at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, but with our patients coming from across the North East, we work in close partnership with smaller, local hospitals to hold outreach clinics there, so that you do not have to travel as far.
Our overriding ambition is to provide the highest quality treatment, care and support to our patients and their families, and we do all we can to achieve this. If you have any suggestions for how we can improve our service, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Contact us
If you would like to find out more information about any aspect of our service, please contact:
Ms Liz Cunliffe
Directorate Manager for Plastic Surgery
Telephone: (0191) 282 9192
