Ex-Pussycat Dolls Member Carmit Bachar Suffered from Cleft Palate

Carmit Bachar, 38, a former Pussycat Dolls band member had a cleft palate since birth. She underwent annual surgeries from age six months to 18 years.

Cleft palate is often caused by abnormal facial development during the gestation period of pregnancy. Cleft refers to a gap which creates a split in the mouth of the child.

She took classes for piano, dance and drama, as well as rhythmic gymnastics. Her love for performing got her selected for a U.S. national team.

She had many surgeries but her scars remained through her adolescence. Despite all the hard work she did, she faced bullying and negative remarks by many because of the cleft on her face. A talent agent from U.K. told her not to keep her hopes too high for a starry career because of her looks.

She faced the first major operation at the age of eight in which a piece of bone from her thigh was used by the medics to form a hard palate inside her mouth.

"I'd be so excited, thinking this operation would fix it, and then I would be disappointed as my lips still looked different," Bachar said in a Daily Mail report.

All the operations formed an underbite, which grew worse at 12. This unwanted development took place because of the repeated operations she was going through. She had to go through another major operation to correct this deformity.

After every operation she had to learn to use her voice.

"I had to relearn where your tongue is supposed to go and where the different sounds are. I taught myself how to whistle again too. But there are still sounds I can't make," Bachar said.

She finally got rid of her cleft at age 18. The doctors used a bone from her head and restructured her nose bridge.

One out of 600 infants suffers from cleft palate and other craniofacial disorders in U.S., reports the Cleft Palate Foundation. One out of 700 infants faces this deformity in the U.K.

"The management of patients with craniofacial syndromes is complex," Rosenthal and colleagues stated in a report. "Otolaryngologic [ear-nose-throat] evaluation is of paramount importance in providing adequate care for this patient population."

"The U.K. leads the world in cleft care, and while 30 years ago children would have 17 or 18 operations, we avoid that now," said Nigel Mercer, consultant cleft surgeon at the South West regional cleft unit in Bristol.

Though there are great treatments for cleft lip and palate in the U.K. now and it can be detected in 20-week-old fetuses.

"People need to know that beauty isn't just on the outside - it's on the inside," Bachar said.