Dr. Marco Navarro is the lead orthodontist, CEO, and founder of Orashape and Advanced Orthodontic Studio in Houston and Irving, TX. For over 20 years, Dr. Navarro has provided outstanding and affordable orthodontic care to patients throughout Texas and Mexico.
New Patient Group’s Avery Wade recently spoke with Dr. Navarro about what a cleft palate, what treatment looks like, and what role orthodontics plays in that treatment.
“When a patient is born with a cleft palate, they end up with very unique dental and oral problems that require complex treatments to correct. For many of these patients, treatment often starts as soon as they are born and can be a long and exhausting journey. We’ve seen some patients at different stages and their treatment can be as long as seven or eight years,” Dr. Navarro explained.
“Treatment often requires multiple surgeries – lip repair, jaw surgery, bone grafts – to repair a patient’s cleft palate. As an orthodontist, we try to stimulate growth as much as we can to allow patients to keep as many of their teeth as possible.”
As part of the cleft palate clinic at Advanced Orthodontics, Dr. Navarro coordinates with his patients’ plastic surgeon, maxillofacial surgeon, dentist, and other specialists to be able to provide them with the treatment they need and improve their quality of life. And it isn’t just children with cleft palates that he is treating. Dr. Navarro noted that they are seeing an increasing number of adult patients as well.
“So what we want is to improve their quality of life and change it. Now, this has evolved so much that there’s so many patients – even adult patients [who have been] untreated [for their] cleft palates, and now they’re coming for treatment. We have patients coming in who are in their 40s and 50s.”
Dr. Navarro talked about one adult cleft palate patient in particular:
“Right now, we have a 50-year-old patient with a cleft palate and his treatment was just phenomenal. His personality and quality of life changed overnight. He went from being shy, not wanting to talk, and hiding on the inside to being so happy and excited. You can see the happiness he has of feeling comfortable about smiling and being able to talk better.”
The care and compassion that Dr. Navarro and his staff have for their patients and the joy and pride that they feel at their patients’ happiness is evident.
“it’s just amazing. It’s a rewarding experience that I love. I love that impact. And just the whole staff as well, they see the changes. Sometimes we show the before and after pictures to patients and their families and they cry. And we cry with them as well because it’s been a long journey and they become part of our family. That experience really changes you it keeps you humble and grateful with life.”
If you’re an adult with a cleft palate or have a child with a cleft palate, Dr. Navarro is one of the only providers in the Texas area offering cleft palate and lip treatment. Give us a call at (214)-272-7626 (Irving) or (713)-588-0280 (Houston) and schedule your consultation today.