Beth's treatment journey started at the age of three months when she had an operation to repair her lip, followed by a second operation six months later to repair her palate, in which the roof of her mouth was sewn together like a ridge.
At the age of nine, Beth underwent a bone graft surgery* to further repair her palate. This was a procedure in which bone was taken from her hip to close the gap at the roof of her mouth where she had her palate stitched together. After having the bone graft surgery, Beth was given a retainer with a false tooth on to cover the gap where her palate had been sewn as the area did not have any gum.
At the age of 16, Beth had chosen to do elective reconstructive surgeries that were not necessary for all cleft patients. She wore train tracks braces for four years to straighten her teeth and align her jaw, as well as had her wisdom teeth removed to prepare for jaw surgery.
In December 2015, Beth underwent her first jaw surgery where the surgeon broke her jaw to reset the alignment so that she can bite “the right way around”. However, she noticed some problems with her jaw a few months later.
“Around March, I noticed my top jaw was moving up and down when I bite, not massively, but enough for me to notice it, and it hurts to eat harder food. Since I’ve never bitten with my teeth in the right alignment, I didn’t know if everybody’s jaw would move that much or maybe that’s just something new to me,” said Beth.
Eventually, she found out that instead of having bone growing around the titanium plates and between the new jaw alignment, scar tissue had grown instead. This caused the jaw to move backwards as the scar tissue was not strong enough to solidify it together.
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*Bone graft surgery: Transplanting of bone tissue to repair missing or damaged bone
Background picture credit: Beth Angella
Beth's cleft journey became markedly different when the first jaw surgery did not work properly when she was 18.
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She decided to have a second jaw surgery in September 2016. This time, she had a bone graft surgery where the surgeon took bone from her hip to help stabilise the alignment and encourage bone growth rather than scar tissue.
“My orthodontist said that in 30 years of doing this sort of treatment, she had never seen such a case happened to somebody else. It was incredibly unlucky,” said Beth.
After the surgery, Beth received 10 injections of botox* to break down some muscles in the jaw so that her habit of clenching her teeth will not exert too much pressure on the healing jaw bone.
Seven months later, Beth underwent a reconstructive nose surgery known as septorhinoplasty.
She explained: “My left nasal passage was collapsed so I could never ever breathe through my nose properly. If I shut my mouth, I’ll feel really short of breath. The nose surgery may have aesthetic benefits but more importantly, reconstructive benefits because I can now breathe very clearly through my nose.”
*Botox: a non-surgical treatment to help relax facial muscles
Background picture credit: Beth Angella
Beth had also undergone lip reconstruction surgery in which her surgeon reconstructed the lip muscle and performed a dermis fat graft* gained from her hip to make her top lip fuller. The last procedure she hopes to receive is to have a permanent false tooth inserted.
“I learnt to accept myself, and a big part of it was from writing my own website. It started off with me not understanding why having an aesthetic change can transform me so much internally and I eventually found it really interesting for patients to feel empowered,” said Beth.
Beth shares her cleft journey on her website, Beth’s Cleft Lip and Palate, detailing all the procedures she received as well as her psychological struggles being born as a cleft patient.
*Dermis fat graft: a surgical procedure to transfer fat from one part of the body to another
Background picture credit: Beth Angella