The management of cleft palate

Successful treatment of congenital and acquired conditions affecting the palate depends on an understanding of its functions. As the floor of the nose, it provides part of the airway, isolating nasal cavity from obstruction by food during mastication, and as the roof of the mouth, it provides a surface against which food may be broken up by the tongue and neatly passed back as manageable boluses for swallowing. In man its smooth surface is also concerned with the production of distinguishably different sounds which can be combined together to produce intelligible speech. The soft palate has the additional ability to contribute to closure of the velopharyngeal isthmus to prevent food entering the nose in swallowing and also to conserve and direct respired air through the mouth under pressure for speech.