Our multidisciplinary program combines the efforts of plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons, ophthalmologists, dentists and orthodontists, genetic counselors, speech pathologists, psychologists and social workers to evaluate, diagnose and comprehensively treat your child’s unique physical and emotional needs, keeping the needs of the family in mind as well. This allows us to meet all your child’s needs related to his or her condition, including feeding, growth, hearing, breathing, vision and dental.

At U-M Health, your child will benefit from a truly collaborative treatment team, offering seamlessly coordinated care from a full spectrum of specialists. Our team members communicate closely every stem of the way, from diagnosis through treatment and follow-up care. As an academic medical center, our specialists are leaders in teaching the next generation of craniofacial specialists, as well as in research to advance the field of plastic surgery. Our leadership in this area gives us a uniquely thorough understanding of the distinctive aspects of these conditions and their underlying causes, and makes us particularly well-qualified to treat not just the symptoms of craniofacial anomalies, but the entire condition.

We treat the full scope of craniofacial anomalies, including:

• Cleft lip and cleft palate – Conditions caused when the tissues of the lip and/or palate of the fetus do not fuse very early in pregnancy
• Positional head deformities (positional plagiocephaly) - A change in head shape caused by external pressure on the skull
• Craniosynostosis, including Apert, Cruzon, Muenke, Saethre-Chotzen, and other syndromes – Conditions in which one or more of the fibrous sutures in an infant skull prematurely fuses, restricting skull and brain growth
• Hemifacial microsomia - A condition with underdevelopment of the ears and jaws
• Treacher Collins syndrome - A rare, inherited, congenital craniofacial condition that affects the bones, jaws, skin and muscles of the face
• Vascular Anomalies 

Our specialists offer a full spectrum of treatments and therapies to reshape the skull, allow for proper brain growth and/or restore a more typical cosmetic appearance. Minimally invasive therapies are also available for certain conditions. We utilize the latest techniques to decrease the number of procedures your child must undergo.

Schedule an appointment by calling us at 734-998-6022.

While pediatric plastic surgery has made huge strides in developing treatments and procedures to successfully correct a number of these conditions, there is still an urgent need to identify strategies to repair many of the most debilitating defects.

Every day, our researchers strive to find new procedures and discover new information to improve outcomes for kids with craniofacialanomalies. We are currently leading a number of studies to advance the treatment of craniofacial deformities, including:

• Creating new bones – developing revolutionary strategies to stimulate growth in the child’s own bones, eliminating the need for bone grafts (using bone from other parts of the body resources that can be depleted with multiple surgeries)
• Improving craniofacial surgery outcomes – conducting outcomes research on corrective therapies for cleft lips and palates to identify opportunities to advance surgical techniques that will ensure optimal end results for patients, improve overall patient care, and uncover new prevention strategies, plus identify which children are more likely to fail initial therapy
• Conducting quality of life studies – monitoring patients’ progress to understand not just the clinical outcomes of their care, but also how treatment affects their quality of life. From functional abilities to behavioral and social development, our research seeks to continuously improve standards of care, allowing for maximum quality of life for these children both during and after treatment.