Dynamic lip function of cleft patients
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A pilot study to assess the outcome of dynamic lip function of cleft patients following final surgical correction.
IRAS ID
208383
Contact name
Balvinder Khambay
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 20 days
Research summary
In everyday life facial movement plays a very important role in a number of settings including being able to speak (verbal) and non-verbal communication, for instance smiling, frowning and surprise. From a medical perspective facial disfigurement, either during in-utero development (congenital deformity), following an accident or following some medical condition can alter how facial expressions are made; this can lead to psychological distress. Consider a patient who has had a stoke or Bells Palsy and has facial paralysis, they will smile differently and maybe aware of this difference and this may effect their quality of life.
Technology now exists to record, quantify and analyse smiles, which has several important medical applications. A specific example of surgical intervention is seen in the treatment of cleft lip and palate. Every year in the UK, around 1 in every 700 live births present with this condition and represents the second most frequently occurring congenital deformity. This group of patients under go numerous operations and are under the care of the NHS from birth and well into adult life. The ultimate goal of the entire surgical interventions is to improve facial appearance and function so they are no different to non-cleft individuals. Similar issues arise following reconstructive surgery for head and neck cancer, stroke, Bell’s palsy and facial nerve damage to mention a few. The ability to characterize, locate the site and amount of any residual movement deficit e.g. an asymmetrical smile, following cleft lip and palate (CLP) repair therefore has immense potential value in assessing the current outcome of the surgical repair and improving patient care. Currently this is carried out using the position of teeth i.e. the bite, which has nothing to do with facial appearance or my taking convention “still” photographs. These do not record movement and are not three-dimensional. This new method of imaging uses multiple 3D photographs over a period of time to produce a “3D movie”. This can then be used to measure lip movement, for example smiling in 3D over 3-4 seconds providing a wealth of information that can be measured.REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0594
Date of REC Opinion
2 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion