Cleft Lip & Cleft Palate Care at Columbia

Surgery to repair a cleft lip or cleft palate can be life-changing for a child. Columbia’s Craniofacial Center provides advanced care for children with facial conditions and complex facial deformities related to three main areas:

Congenital (birth) defects
Trauma
Tumor or abnormal growth

As part of one of the country's best medical centers and the #1 children’s hospital in New York, we look forward to putting our top-quality resources towards helping you and your child. Our program proudly meets the high standards for Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Teams as set forth by the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association (ACPA) and Cleft Palate Foundation (CPF).

Considering surgery for your loved one can be stressful. We’re here to help, ready to answer your questions do everything we can to make the process as comfortable and straightforward as possible. To get started with our Craniofacial Center, call (212) 305-4346 or contact us through our online form.

Stories & Perspectives

My Son Was Born With Craniosynostosis

Baby Ollie had sagittal synostosis, the most common type of craniosynostosis. His pediatricians initially missed his condition, but he was diagnosed by a neurosurgeon and treated just in time. Here's everything parents should know about the birth defect affecting the skull. Read Ollie's story

Our Programs & Services

Complete Care for All Craniofacial Issues

Our team has experience treating every form of craniofacial issue, at all levels of severity and complexity. Specific areas of expertise at the Cleft & Craniofacial Center include:

Cleft lip and palate
Swallowing, hearing, and speech difficulties due to cleft palate and velopharyngeal insufficiency
Facial clefting syndromes, including Treacher Collins syndrome
Craniosynostosis syndromes, including Crouzon and Apert syndromes
Branchial arch syndromes
Craniofacial trauma
Facial and jaw tumors and occlusal discrepancies
Dentofacial deformities and malocclusion
Congenital deformities of the eyelids, eye muscles, and tear ducts
Vascular growths and malformations, including hemangiomas

A Commitment to Community

We don’t just perform surgeries on kids with craniofacial issues, we form lasting relationships with our patients and their families. That sense of community is important to us, and we frequently organize events so that members of our craniofacial family can meet each other, learn from one another, and support us all.

As leaders in our field, we also feel a responsibility to bring our expertise to the global community. Team members regularly organize and participate in non-profit surgical missions to other countries, including Honduras and China, to treat children with cleft lips, cleft palates and other craniofacial problems.

Research

Members of the Craniofacial Center are at the forefront of research in the field, developing new treatments for speech disorders and new techniques to stimulate and promote cranial bone formation. They regularly publish articles, book chapters, and books, including one on soothing pain in children and another for mothers on providing medical care.

To donate to our clinical and research initiatives, please visit our Cleft and Craniofacial fund page »

About Cleft Palate and Cleft Lip

Cleft palate is a condition that occurs when the roof of the mouth (aka the palate) does not completely close during development, leaving an opening, or cleft. The cleft may involve either side of the palate, though the left side is more common. It can extend from the front of a baby's mouth (hard palate) to the throat (soft palate). Cleft palate may occur on its own, or it may be associated with cleft lip.

Cleft lip is a congenital condition in which the upper lip does not completely close during fetal development. The degree of the cleft lip can vary greatly, from mild (a small notching of the lip) to severe (a large opening from the lip up through the nose). Cleft lip is often more noticeable than cleft palate.

Read more about the diagnosis and treatment of cleft palate and cleft lip »

Craniofacial surgery for cleft lip alone can occur within the first few months of life, when the baby is 10-12 pounds. Because repairing a cleft palate is more complicated than repairing a cleft lip alone, these surgeries are typically performed when the child is 9-12 months old and will respond better to surgery.

Read more about how and why craniofacial surgery is performed »

Stories & Perspectives

For a Child With A Rare Skull Condition, The Craniofacial Team Comes Through

After craniosynostosis and an infected frontal bone left one-year old Lily without a forehead, her parents turned to the craniofacial team at Columbia and our hospital partner, NewYork-Presbyterian. Read Lily's story

Our Craniofacial Center Team

Because children born with cleft or craniofacial conditions often have other complex health conditions as well, they are best managed by a multi-specialist team including a surgeon, a pediatrician, a pediatric dentist, orthodontist, geneticist, otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat doctor, or ENT), an audiologist, a speech-language pathologist, a nurse to help with feeding problems and oversee care, and other experts as needed.

To meet our Craniofacial Center team, call (212) 305-4346 or contact us through our online form.

Craniofacial Plastic Surgery

Jeffrey Ascherman, MD
Dr. Ascherman is an experienced plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has published over 75 scientific articles and chapters, and has been included multiple times in Castle Connolly’s list of America’s Top Doctors and in New York Magazine’s annual list of Best Doctors. He has been an active participant in humanitarian surgical missions, and has traveled numerous times to China as well as to South America to perform volunteer surgeries. Read more »

Thomas Imahiyerobo, MD
As Section Chief of Pediatric Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Director of Cleft and Craniofacial Surgery, Dr. Imahiyerobo is a national leader in the treatment of cleft lip, cleft palate, craniosynostosis, frontal facial advancement and orthognathic (jaw) surgery. He also specializes in the care of adult cosmetic and reconstructive surgery of the head and neck. When not performing surgery, he is focused on outcomes research for cleft lip and palate surgery, as well as the effects of craniosynostosis on pediatric cognitive development. Read more »

Naikhoba Munabi, MD
Dr. Munabi has extensive training in the full breadth of plastic and reconstructive surgery, with a particular interest in cleft lip, cleft palate, craniosynostosis, hypertelorism, frontal facial advancement, orthognathic surgery, rhinoplasty, and MEDPOR ear reconstruction for microtia. She also specializes in adult aesthetic and reconstructive surgery of the head and neck. Dr. Munabi has extensive training in the full breadth of plastic and reconstructive surgery, with a particular interest in cleft lip, cleft palate, craniosynostosis, hypertelorism, frontal facial advancement, orthognathic surgery, rhinoplasty, and MEDPOR ear reconstruction for microtia. She also specializes in adult aesthetic and reconstructive surgery of the head and neck. Read more »

June K. Wu, MD
Dr. Wu is board-certified plastic surgeon specializing in pediatric reconstructive surgery and pediatric vascular anomalies. She trained at Boston Children’s Hospital before joining the team at Columbia. Read more »