Latest Blogs - American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association

Member News: Williams, Aboutanos and Taylor

By Alyssa Kirkman posted 3 days ago

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ACPA Members Joseph Williams, Sharline Aboutanos and Jesse Taylor were recently featured in the news. Dr. Joseph K. Williams was featured in an ABC News story, "Dad and daughter duo with cleft palates get surgery at same hospital decades apart". From the article: Hattie Pierce was born with a cleft lip and palate. And when her mom and dad, Brian and Molly Pierce of Atlanta, saw her photo, they knew she would be their daughter. Brian and Molly Pierce had already decided to adopt from China prior to being matched with Hattie. Brian Pierce, too, had been born with a cleft lip and palate and as such, felt a special connection to the little girl whom ...

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ACPA’s 75th Annual Meeting: Call for Abstracts

By Jessica Kokos posted 5 days ago

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The American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association (ACPA) is now accepting abstracts for ACPA's 75th Annual Meeting, April 10-14, 2018 in Pittsburgh, PA. All ACPA members and interested nonmembers are invited to submit abstracts on new research, developing information or instructional courses on cleft lip/palate and craniofacial anomalies. All submissions are due September 12, 2017. Submit an abstract . ACPA's 75th Annual Meeting will explore advances in research, clinical and team-driven care of patients as we honor the past, challenge the present, and inspire the future. Abstracts in the following categories will be considered: Oral Presentations ...

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How do children with cleft lip and cleft palate perform academically as compared to peers?

By Ronald Strauss posted 7 days ago

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A team of investigators from UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University and the NC State Health Department collaborated with the NC State Department of Public Instruction to answer the question that many parents ask: How do children with cleft lip and cleft palate perform academically as compared to peers? Using merged state vital record data and end-of-grade testing data, we were able to look at the association between non-syndromic orofacial clefts and NC end-of-grade test performance in reading and math from third through eighth grade. We identified a non-syndromic group of 559 children with clefts and 6,822 children without birth defects. Using a logistic regression ...

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ACPA Awareness Events - Join us!

By Alyssa Kirkman posted 11 days ago

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ACPA is participating in several events for Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness Month in July. We are excited to build local and national awareness, and we hope all of our local members, doctors, families and friends can join us as we celebrate. Mayor Pam Hemminger and the Town of Chapel Hill are declaring July to be Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness Month in Chapel Hill. ACPA's President-Elect Amelia Drake, MD, director of the UNC Craniofacial Center, will accept the proclamation on behalf of ACPA. She will also speak a few minutes about cleft awareness. The public is welcome to attend the council meeting to see the award presentation on June 26 at 7:00 ...

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Member News: Steinberg

By Erin Mallis posted 14 days ago

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ACPA Member Jordan Steinberg, MD, PhD was recently quoted in an article by Advocate Health Care. The article, "He was meant to be my child" , tells the story of a child with cleft lip and palate who was adopted from China. From the article: “It is common in China that a cleft lip is repaired for adopted children but not the palate,” says Dr. Jordan Steinberg, pediatric and craniofacial plastic surgeon at Advocate Children’s Hospital. “In Trey’s case, palate repair was attempted but not successful. If the palate is not properly repaired very early in childhood, muscles do not function appropriately, and the patient can learn bad patterns for speech. ...

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CPF Family Services: Carrissa's Story

By Stephanie Williamson posted 18 days ago

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I’m Carrissa and I’m 22 years old. I was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate, but I feel like I live a crazy blessed life. Obviously it wasn’t always easy, but the cool thing about clefts is that you become such a strong person just by going through it all. I remember exactly two of my four surgeries. I was originally treatment planned to have more than four, but between being incredibly lucky and being too afraid of more surgery to fix things cosmetically, four was the magic number. When I was born, my mother wasn’t even told the sex of her newborn, all she heard was ‘cleft lip and palate’ as I was handed off to nurses. I was born at 8.5 lbs, and ...

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Member News: Khechoyan

By Erin Mallis posted 21 days ago

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ACPA Member and David Khechoyan was recently highlighted in the news. David Khechoyan, MD, was featured in a video by Children's Hospital Colorado : Meet Our Doc: David Khechoyan, MD, Center for Children's Surgery. Submit your personal or team news to Alyssa Kirkman .

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Team News: Nationwide Children's Hospital

By Alyssa Kirkman posted 25 days ago

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Nationwide Children's Hospital was highlighted in a story on NBC4 Columbus . Every year, the Memorial Tournament celebrates Nationwide Children’s Hospital Patients through its Patients Champions program. The segment is about Joaquin, and eight-year old born with cleft lip and palate. View the video and read the story.

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Cleft Palate Foundation Announces 2017 College Scholarship Winners

By Stephanie Williamson posted 05-25-2017

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The Cleft Palate Foundation (CPF) is pleased to announce the winners of their annual college scholarship awards. The CPF College Scholarship Committee, led by chair Dianne Altuna, MS, CCC-SLP, awarded a total of 17 scholarships to outstanding students nationwide. This year’s winners are: Peter Randall, MD & Don LaRossa, MD Scholarship Award : Emily Everlith, Hebron, CT Earl “Gip” Seaver, PhD Scholarship Award: Elise Schiller, St. Louis, MO CPF Community College Scholarship Award: Hannahmarie Mitchell, Chino, CA CPF VCFS/22q11.2DS Scholarship: James Schweizer, Atlanta, GA CPF Craniosynostosis Scholarship: Sara Pollak, Wilton, CT ...

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Face Equality Day is May 26

By Charlene Pell posted 05-22-2017

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Eight years ago, Changing Faces introduced the Face Equality initiative and campaign to: raise awareness of our unconscious beliefs about disfigurement that can result in prejudice and discrimination encourage people, organizations and the government to tackle such beliefs and attitudes and make a commitment to Face Equality help everyone learn new ways of thinking and behaving towards people with disfiguring conditions This year Changing Faces is giving the campaign a special push, with the UK’s first Face Equality Day on Friday, May 26. Find out more and how to get involved! Changing Faces will be publishing Disfigurement in the ...

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Center for Dental, Oral, Craniofacial Tissue and Organ Regeneration RFP

By Ophir Klein posted 05-18-2017

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We are pleased to announce the Center for Dental, Oral, Craniofacial Tissue and Organ Regeneration ( C-DOCTOR ) RFP that will award up to $150,000 to promising dental, oral and craniofacial tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TE/RM) technologies and help them advance toward human clinical trials through customized product development advice and core resources. The first round is just a 2-page proposal, and the deadline is June 9, 2017 . Please see the full RFP for details . If you don’t think this is a good fit for you, please forward it to anyone who may be interested - it is open to any US and foreign investigators and to US companies of ...

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ACPA's Toyama Quoted in Daily Mail Article

By Alyssa Kirkman posted 05-15-2017

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Wendy-Jo Toyama, Executive Director of ACPA and CPF, was recently included in an article on www.dailymail.com . The article, which describes cleft palate and possible treatments, uses a recent trip from Smile Train Ambassadors to spread awareness about cleft. Excerpts: Wendy-Jo Toyama, the executive director of the Cleft Palate Foundation and the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association, said cleft palates are one of the most common birth defects in America. She said: 'It's not ...

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Happy #NursesWeek to our Cleft and Craniofacial Nurses!

By ACPA posted 05-11-2017

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Happy #NursesWeek to all of our cleft and craniofacial nurses. Your contributions are essential for the success of each patient's cleft care journey. Thank you for the hard work and heart you put into everything you do. Let us know how we can support you as you continue to work with patients with cleft lip, cleft palate and craniofacial differences. Happy Nurse's Week

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Annual Meeting Abstracts Published in CPCJ

By Jessica Kokos posted 05-08-2017

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Abstracts from the peer-reviewed podium presentations at the ACPA's 74th Annual Meeting are now available in the online edition of The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal. View the abstracts . Abstracts were published as submitted by the authors. For financial conflict of interest disclosure, please visit: http://meeting.acpa-cpf.org/disclosures.html The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal , a bi-monthly international journal on craniofacial difference, is the official publication of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association. Current ACPA Members receive a subscription to the journal as part of membership . Please send us an email if ...

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National Office Participates in 2017 UNC Cleft Palate Gallop

By Stephanie Williamson posted 05-02-2017

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The Miles for Smiles Dental School Student Organization at UNC hosted the 9th Annual Cleft Palate Gallop on Saturday, April 1, 2017. Friends and family of the cleft community gathered on a beautiful Saturday morning to run and walk around UNC Chapel Hill’s campus. The Old Well signified the start line for the 5k runners and the fun walkers followed, many with babies and dogs in tow. CPF and ACPA National Office Team members were proud to participate the event - and one of the National Office team members won in her age group! We enjoyed the festivities and the comradery. Pictures of the event can be found on the Gallop's Facebook page . The volunteer student ...

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Member News: Lisa Jacob works on AAP Report to Recommend Team Care

By Alyssa Kirkman posted 05-01-2017

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ACPA Member Lisa Jacob, DDS, MS, has worked with the American Academy of Pediatrics to publish a clinical report, " The Primary Care Pediatrician and the Care of Children with Cleft Lip and/or Cleft Palate . " In the report, AAP recommends that children born with CL/P receive coordinated care through a multidisciplinary cleft or craniofacial team. The report is intended to help pediatricians better manage children with cleft lip/palate. The report abstract: Orofacial clefts, specifically cleft lip and/or cleft palate (CL/P), are among the most common congenital anomalies. CL/P vary in their location and severity and comprise 3 overarching groups: ...

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Thank you to ACPA and CPF Volunteers

By Wendy-Jo Toyama posted 04-27-2017

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As we celebrate National Volunteer Week, we would like to thank the ACPA and CPF Board of Directors, our committee chairs and co-chairs, committee members, Annual Meeting Mentors, and all of our volunteers for working with ACPA and CPF over the past year. Your support strengthens our community as we work to create a world, through team care, where individuals with oral cleft and craniofacial conditions thrive. Your time investment makes ACPA and CPF more influential, and we thank you. The National Office Team is excited to work with our members and professionals everyday - to offer support as they provide their patients with the best care possible. ...

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Member News: Cox, Cunningham and Greives

By Alyssa Kirkman posted 04-24-2017

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ACPA Members Timothy Cox, Michael Cunningham and Matt Greives were recently highlighted in the news. Cox and Cunningham were highlighted for a study that was published in the Journal of Dental Research , "Massively Increased Caries Susceptibility in an Irf6 Cleft Lip/Palate Model". Excerpts from the interview: "We found that the cleft lip and palate gene mutation also resulted in abnormal salivary glands," Cox said. "The result was a mouth environment that was too acidic and contained excess bacteria, which led to problems in the gums and more rapid tooth decay." "Doctors who treat children with cleft lip or palate have observed for a long ...

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Spread Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness this July

By Stephanie Williamson posted 04-20-2017

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This July, treatment specialists, support organizations, advocacy groups, and affected individuals and families are joining forces to encourage awareness of cleft and craniofacial conditions for National Cleft & Craniofacial Awareness Month . We will work to promote awareness throughout July, and we need your help to spread the word as much as possible. We invite you to write a brief narrative of your experiences to be shared as we spread awareness in July and throughout the year. Please send us your practitioner stories and share our flier with your patients and families so they can submit their stories. Email us your story and pictures . Your submission ...

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Become an ACPA/CPF Approved Team

By Hillary Jones posted 04-17-2017

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We want your team to become an ACPA/CPF Approved Team! The Commission on Approval of Teams (CAT) is now accepting applications from all teams seeking approval and from Region III teams who would like to continue to be listed as Approved Teams. Applications are due July 1, 2017. Teams are approved for up to five years. Keep in mind that if you are not in Region III and your team is approved this year, you will be required to reapply when your region is up for review - which will be in fewer than 5 years. Region IV will be up for review in 2018, Region V in 2019, Region I in 2020, and Region II in 2021. ACPA’s mission is to optimize team care for ...

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