Psychological counselling for patients with lip-jaw-palate clefts and their relatives

With a probability of about 1:500, babies are born with lip-jaw-palate clefts making these clefts the second most common in-born dysplasias. Lip-jaw-palate clefts are treated in the Department of Orthodontics and the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Kopfklinik of Heidelberg University Hospital. Patients regularly attend an interdisciplinary lip-jaw-palate-cleft consultation hour to discuss individual treatment stages and coordinate the timing of the treatment.

In order to prevent potential distress and to reduce existing strain, we offer patients and their relatives psychological counseling sessions. According to your needs, you can attend these sessions by yourself or with a family member.

For any pressing concern, we are at your disposal during the Kopfklinik’s lip-jaw-palate-cleft consultation hour. We additionally offer individually arranged counselling sessions in our institute. Usually, we start with one or two counselling sessions of one hour each; if necessary, further sessions can be arranged. The costs for the counselling sessions are covered by your health insurance. Please bring a referral form with you, which your general practitioner will be happy to issue for you.

Please feel free to contact us if you have further questions or would like to make an appointment. You can also contact us directly during the lip-jaw-palate-cleft consultation hour:

Marco Warth: marco.warth@med.uni-heidelberg.de

Katja Schmalenberger: katja.schmalenberger@med.uni-heidelberg.de

Julia Mahal: julia.mahal@med.uni-heidelberg.de