Bottles & BREXIT

CLAPAI will be receiving a delivery of 500 bottles on 16th December 2020.  It is planned to make Cleft Bottle Contingency packs available to maternity hospitals. Email info@cleft.ie for further information. 


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Calling adults attending cleft services at St James’ Hospital!

UPDATE- Due to the upcoming weather event in Dublin our information evening scheduled for  1 March has been postponed until 14 March 2018.

The Cleft Lip and Palate Association of Ireland (CLAPAI) is hosting an information evening for adults attending cleft services in St James’ Hospital on Thursday, 14 March 2018 at 19:30 in the Clayton Hotel near Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.

The focus for the evening will be on dental work and the experience of adults who have returned to the service or require the service.

Please RSVP on 0871319803 or info@cleft.ie.

Please note that admission is free and tea and coffee will be served.


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Parent Led Articulation Therapy (PLAT) Update

Parent Led Articulation Therapy (PLAT) is an exciting new Speech & Language Therapy project which aims to find out if empowering parents by training them helps their child overcome their speech problems related to cleft palate.

This two centre study is being run by Dr. Triona Sweeney, Trinity College Dublin and Dr. Debbie Sell, Great Ormond Street Hospital. Parents are encouraged to participate in this study as this will help us find out whether this novel new approach to speech therapy for children http://www.ciprobuyonline.org with cleft palate related speech problems is effective. Four parents who have already attended the training course were extremely positive about the programme. Following the home programme they said that “you feel like you are instrumental – taking some power yourself”, and how they realised that children “need a little bit every day, a weekly appointment is not enough”.

If you want further information about the project contact your cleft unit or Triona by phone at 085 1754614 or email platslt@icloud.com.


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Dental Care All The Way – Information Evening, 2nd April

Topic: “Dental Care All The Way”

(combined AGM & Information Evening)

Doors open from 7:30pm. Admission is free, no rx all are welcome. 

Venue: Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, Newland’s Cross, Naas Road, Dublin 22. (see location map below)

We are delighted to have three eminent speakers for this event:

  • Doctor Eleanor McGovern, Clinical Fellow Registrar, Paediactric Dentistry.
  • Mister Eamon McKiernan, Consultant Orthodontist with the national brief for Cleft Treatment.
  • Doctor Aisling O Mahony, Consultant in Restorative Dentistry.

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The Dublin Cleft Centre Conference

“Cleft Lip and Palate: The Journey of Care from Birth to Adulthood”

Venue: Hilton Dublin Hotel, cheap Charlemont Place, Dublin 2 (location map below)

The aim of the conference is to provide an overview of the journey of care of a baby born with Cleft Lip & Palate from birth to adulthood.  (Access Registration Form below)

This conference is suitable for Neonatologists, Paediatricians, Obstetricians,Surgical Trainees, Speech & Language Therapists, Orthodontists, Dentists, Nurses, P.H.N. & Midwives, General Practitioners and other interested Health Care Professionals.

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Contribution towards purchase of 3D Equipment

see below” src=”http://www.cleft.ie/_newsite/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/listen.gif” alt=”Listen to this post, see below” width=”16″ height=”16″ align=”absMiddle” />Thanks to the efforts of some of our young adults that were born with a cleft, the Association is in a position to contribute €6,700 towards the cost of software required for the new 3D equipment that will be used by the Dublin Cleft Team.  The new equipment http://www.buycheap-pillsonline.com/yasmin.html will facilitate better pre-operation planning for work that is typically carried out on teenagers and young adults.  The Association is very pleased to be able to help in this way.

The cheque will be presented to the Dublin Cleft Team at our Information Evening on 26th February.


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Operation Smile – Happy Anniversary

Listen to this post below, watch video.Operation Smile, a private, not-for-profit, volunteer medical services organization, provides free reconstructive surgery and related healthcare to children around the world born with cleft lip and/or palate.

Mohammed in Morocco (photos: Rohanna Mertens) Operation Smile was founded by Doctor William P Magee, a plastic surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen, in 1982. Operation Smile medical volunteers have treated more than 100,000 children worldwide since 1982 and currently has programs in 25 countries.

This year, Operation Smile commemorates its 25th anniversary, and its celebrations will culminate in November 2007 with the World Journey of Smiles, 43 simultaneous missions in 25 countries, with a goal of providing new smiles and new lives for an estimated 5,000 children living with facial deformities.

Happy 25th Anniversary to Operation Smile from the Cleft Lip and Palate Association of Ireland

Operation Smile Ireland

The growing interest from donors and medical professionals in Ireland about Operation Smile’s mission prompted the creation of Operation Smile Ireland in 2003.
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Cleft Lip & Palate – The Role of Speech & Language Therapy

Listen to this post, see belowView slide presentation belowA Presentation

Julie Young, Speech and Language Therapist This presentation was given by Julie Young at an Information Evening organised by the Association in St. James’s Hospital on Tuesday, 24th September, 2002. Julie was at that time a speech and language therapist attached to Temple Street Children’s Hospital, Dublin.

The role of the SLT is vital for a successful outcome to cleft treatment. Julie concentrates on speech and language therapy but also addressed feeding issues, highlighting the role in this respect of the SLT.
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Genetic Counselling?

In the words of Sally Ann Lynch “genetic counselling” is a most misinterpreted concept! Way back when, counselling meant advice and it is in this context that it is still used today when describing genetic services. The service is most certainly not “touchy feely”, although all concerned are very pleasant! The service is not one of telling people what to do either nor is it about finding fault. So what is the service about?
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Orthodontics – Presentation

At our Information Evening on the 22 Novmber, Mr. McKiernan gave an excellent presentation on Orthodontics for cleft including treatments available and their associated timelines.

Orthodontic treatment breaks down into five stages. Importantly, each individual will have a unique treatment. For example pre surgical orthopaedics is only suited to a small number babies. Similarly not all children will need a bone graft and of those who do not all will need work beforehand. The stages are …
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