Cleft palate and lip development? Help!

[audramill]

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I'm having a tough time getting my head around the development. I've tried Youtube searches, Kaplan lectures and USMLEworld explanations of my incorrect answers.

Does anyone have a brilliant resource to explain what's going on during this developmental period? Maybe something animated?

Primary, secondary, maxillary.... eek!!

 

[Nodelphi]

The way I understand it is Cleft lip = problem with fusion of nasal processes.
Cleft Palate = failure of fusion of palatine processes/plates.

 

[osli]

Yep, that's pretty much it. If it's a "typical" cleft lip under a nostril, it's a nasal to maxillary fusion defect. If it's a "big mouth" (macrostomia) defect, it's a maxillary to mandibular fusion defect. There are others that are midline and produce medial clefts, widened nasal bridges, or even holoprosencephaly (cyclops) but those are very unlikely to be asked about.

 

[tfom08]

My problem is I have seen different terminology for the parts in all of the sources I have looked at. The only one I am sure of is that cleft lip is failure of the median nasal processes to fuse with the the maxillary processes. As for cleft palate, I guess the other one's the other one. Palatine shelfs and something.