It is said, and it is true, that just before we are born a cavern angel puts his finger to our lips and says, “Hush, don’t tell what you know.” This is why we are born with a cleft on our upper lips and remembering nothing of where we come from.
Roderick MacLeish

Cleft lip and palate work is an absolute passion. Of all the things we do, there is a tremendous and greater sense of accomplishment with this work compared to most. These problems tend to be lifelong problems and the anatomic issues carry such crucial functional and aesthetic importance lying between speech and swallowing, facial aesthetics, dentition nasal airway and sinus health, hearing, etc. as part of a craniofacial team, we are dedicated to a group approach providing multiple specialities, super specialist expertise and opinion to fine-tune and polish medical care for the cleft lip and palate/craniofacial patient.

Apart from caring for patients from central Virginia and beyond, I’ve been part of a medical mission group visiting Belize annually since 2001 during which time we have provided cleft lip and palate and other facial plastic and reconstructive care for Caribbean patients. We might see up to 100 patients in a week, performing up to 40 surgeries in that time. I do partner with World Pediatric Project (WPP) who sponsor and assist us with this work.