THE NOSE: A crooked nose can be corrected with plastic surgery with a mild operation. But you must expect to wear a metallic support on your nose for 10 days. The work is done entirely inside the nostrils so there is practically no chance of outside scar.
THE EARS: Protruding ears are corrected at the age of 6 or 7 with the help of plastic surgery. But even adults can be treated, the operation is a mild one.
THE TEETH: Uneven, over lapping, broken or discolored teeth can also be corrected. They can be grounded or a bridge can be placed over them. The great advantage of crowning is that it is completely invisible. The decayed teeth are X-rayed and treated. Casts are taken of them. The dentist then files each tooth until it is a stump. Some days later he mounts the new teeth on the stump and the teeth are perfectly adjusted. Uneven and overlapping teeth can be corrected by having a bridge placed over them.
THE EYES: A squint occurs when the action of the eye muscles that move the eyeballs gets imbalanced in all the directions, due to the fault in the control of these muscles by the brain. A child may be born with a squint or she may acquire it without warning. Sometimes, the squint follows a long illness like typhoid, measles, meningitis or after a fit or convulsions. About eighty percent of this disease is corrected by a competent eye surgeon provided its correction begins the moment it’s seen.
CLEFT PALATE: A cleft palate is present at birth in the roof of the mouth. This defect can be treated by plastic surgery at the age of 18 months, before a child learns to walk. This requires only one operation. After surgery, the child needs special training in speech which is given by a speech therapist to prevent the child from becoming handicapped. The child can also be helped at home greatly if you talk to her frequently, slowly and distinctly and encourage her to speak in the same manner. She should be made to blow a tennis ball back and forth on table every day for 10 minutes to build up pressure against the palate. For the same reason, she should also be made to play with a bubble pipe.
HARELIP: Harelip or cleft lip is a cleft dividing the upper lip and some times extending into the nose. It can be corrected by surgery at the age of 2 to 3 months. Successful surgery only leaves a thin scar behind.
CLUB FOOT: In this deformity, a child’s foot is twisted out of normal position from birth. This condition can be corrected only if you give your child an early treatment. In mild cases, only strapping or casts are required to improve the feet, but in serious cases, orthopedic surgery is required to correct the defect, but if this condition is not corrected early a child will walk abnormally all her life.
FLAT FEET: When a child’s foot is so flattened, that the entire sale rests flat against the surface on which she is standing she has a flat foot. In children, it is very common to have a flat foot during the first two years of their lives, but later on as the child learns to walk the muscles of her foot increase in strength, the arch develops and by the age of three the foot takes on a more adult contour. Flat foot can be corrected with this exercise. Seat the child on a low stool or a chair and scatter a few marbles and pencils on the floor in front of her, then tell her to pick them up with her toes and throw them on the floor again. Let her do this exercise for 10 minutes daily.
BOWLEGS: Bow legs mean that a child’s legs curve outwards with the knees separated when she stands with her feet together. Mild bow legs are common in infants and they usually straighten out as the child grows but severely bowed legs can be corrected with an operation. This condition is mostly caused by rickets. Therefore, a child suffering from this condition should be given daily at least 8 calcium tablets.
POLIO DEFECTS: A child who has been paralyzed by this disease can be cured of it to a certain extent by physical therapy which helps in educating the child to use other muscles to substitute for the damaged muscles. In some cases, reconstructive surgery on the affected limbs proves helpful. Orthopedic devices such as braces, supports and special shoes also prove helpful.
MOLES: Moles are most commonly seen on the face, neck and back. They come in 4 colors – black, brown, blue and white. They are usually small but some times they are large and covered by hair or may be raised above the skin. These moles can be removed surgically. Small moles should be left alone, but if they become big, inflamed and start bleeding for no particular reason then the mole should be seen at once by a doctor.
VASCULAR BIRTHMARKS: This type of birthmark is caused by an unusual clustering together of small blood vessels under the surface of the skin. Vascular birth marks include strawberry marks and port wine stains. Strawberry marks occur on scalp, face, neck and shoulders. They are almost always small, they increase in size during the first few years of a child’s life and then suddenly they decrease in size and become almost unnoticeable. Very big and disfiguring marks can be removed surgically or destroyed by radium therapy. They range in color from scarlet to deep purple. Port wine stains are formed by a combination of clusters of blood vessels and unusual pigmentation. No satisfactory treatment has been found for dealing with these types of stains .
LEUCODERMA: Leucoderma is a skin disease which is hereditary and nearly 40 percent of the patients give a positive family history. It is not a contagious disease and can occur at any age. It is manifested in the form of white patches, single or multiple in any portion of the body and its appearance may be gradual or sudden. Injury, burns, photographic solutions, contact with certain rubber chemicals diabetes or anemia can some times cause this diseases. They are symptom less and hair in the corresponding area may be gray or black. But diet has no relationship with its occurrence, therefore restriction of any nature in diet is not essential. Treatment largely depends on the age, duration of the disease, family history and sites of the patches. The younger the patient, the earlier the treatment the quicker he will recover from these unsightly patches. Allopathy and ayurveda systems of medicines have now found cure for this disease.
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I found this post very informative, especially the section about cleft lips/palates. As I’ve seen first hand, it’s can be a hard condition to deal with, especially as children begin to age. If it is not properly handled with surgery, it can cause severe ear and throat disease and drastically affect a child’s speech. As I’ve been searching for information on the subject, your tips on using the bubble pipe and tennis balls in order to build up pressure against the palate were particularly interesting. I’ll definitely have to keep that in mind. Thanks goodness there are charities like Operation Smile that will perform a cleft palate surgery pro bono. In case you or your readers are interested, this charity has performed surgeries on over 130,000 children with cleft lips/palates and other facial deformities that would have not otherwise ever been able to afford it.