Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Blowhole at the Top of Your Mouth

Yesterday the Captain asked me a question.

"Hey StealthJew. You know how I'm not all that aware of my body and health, right? Can you tell me if something is normal?"

"Sure."

"You know that blowhole at the top of your mouth?"

"You mean your throat?"

"No. The hole in the roof of your mouth."

"There's no hole there."

"Yes there is. You know that hole, the one in the roof of your mouth."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

" . . . *expletive*"

Turns out the Captain has a cleft palate, with a teeny little hole right on the roof of his mouth. The roof of his mouth is also, for the record, kind of flat. After presenting him with Munchkin's mouth as well as mine, I've convinced him that this is not the usual way of things.

Yes, it is strange that the dentist didn't mention this. I realise no one explicitly asks dentists to count the number of orifii in the mouth, but you think they'd mention it.

"By the way, you know you've got an extra hole in there."

Anyone ever known this to exist in an adult? Any suggestions?

3 comments:

  1. does he have sinus problems, ear problems or swallowing problems? If not likely there is not much cause for concern. it is good to know that b/c cleft palate so far as I know is a midline defect and is genetic. Some midline defects are nothing more than small little dimples in the spine for example, but in other those dimples can turn out to be complete spinal bifida. It all stems from the same type of defect. This sort of thing is good to know in case your husband or kids ever has any health problems that are related to genetics.

    That said you should look into it more to make sure I am correct - all this info I have is old from when I was more actively doulaing and so forth. I don't want to lead you down the wrong path.

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  2. no come to think... I learned about this when my last son was born with small dimples on his spine and my chiro remarked on it and got me wondering so I looked it up more. then I realized the correlation to cleft palate. Anyhow, not that it matters.. lol

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  3. My son has that small dimple in the spine, and thankfully it's above the area where it would be spina bifida.

    As for the extra hole type story- we found out about my son's double vision in a similar way. Just an off-hand comment , on the way to the eye dr's...about how you know there's 2 of everything when you look a certain way? Say what?? Famous last words....

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