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Transforming Lives for Cleft Patients
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left lip and palate is a very common birth defect – about 1 in 700 babies are born with it. While advances in treating patients with cleft lip and palate have evolved, one thing remains the same. People born with cleft are resilient and downright tough.
Take Peyton Manning, one of the most skilled
and talented NFL quarterbacks, or Australian soccer star Ljubo Milicevic. Other widely known people with cleft include dentist and gunfighter Doc Holliday, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, newsman Tom Brokaw, and many more athletes, politicians, authors, artists and actors. The Pediatric Cleft and Craniofacial Anomalies Center, part of the Golisano Children’s
Hospital, is a team of specialists from pediatric and plastic surgery, pediatric medicine, dentistry, audiology, and speech and language and social work to address and treat patients’ needs. For babies born with cleft lip and/or palate, the Center partners with Eastman Dental during the early stages and then later for orthodontics. In the beginning, cleft babies often struggle to thrive because feeding is difficult. They undergo painful surgeries as infants, children and teens, and work hard to overcome big challenges with hearing, speech and their dentition. Perhaps these experiences have helped shape their strong determination and fortitude throughout life. In 1950, a young couple had a baby boy with cleft lip and palate. The baby’s father was an aspiring oral surgeon and his mother becoming an English teacher. But due to their son’s condition, they decided to switch their careers to accommodate his needs. Instead, the baby’s mother Joanne became a speech pathologist and the baby’s father, J. Daniel Subtelny, DDS, became an orthodontist after studying at the University of Illinois, known for its reputable program and cleft palate team. He later joined the faculty there, and served on the cleft team, treating dozens of kids with cleft lip and palate before starting the orthodontic program at Eastman Dental Dispensary in 1955.
Dan Lane, 42, was treated for his cleft and orthodontics at SMH and Eastman Dental Dispensary on Main Street.
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eioh | university of rochester medical center
Businessman Dan Lane, 42, was one of those kids treated at Eastman Dental on Main Street, and still has vivid memories.
