Why have I never seen an adult with a cleft lip?

It is true that you rarely see adults with a cleft lip, because the condition is often surgically corrected at birth or in early childhood. To understand why this occurs, it’s important to know a bit of background information. A cleft lip results from incomplete fusion of the maxillary and medial nasal processes during fetal development. As such, an infant born with a cleft lip has what appears as an open gap in their upper lip, which can also extend into the side wall of their nostril(s).

Cleft lips can be surgically corrected using a variety of techniques designed to reconstruct and resize both the upper lip and nose. These repairs are typically done between 3-12 months in order to reduce long-term damage or potential health risks associated with the condition. Over time, these repairs will effectively cosmetically improve the appearance of someone’s face without leaving behind any lasting functional deficits or physical deformity from surgery itself. As such, most adults have not retained a visible sign of having had cleft lips due to successful corrective surgery early on in life!