Surgeon Profiles: Dr. Schmelzer

Contact Information:

801-743-0700

877-282-FACE (3223)

Fax 801-743-0701

Website:  http://www.craniofacialmd.com/

Blog:  http://www.craniofacialmd.com/blog/

Dr. Schmelzer practiced at PCMC several years ago, then left to practice in Arizona for a time. Now he has returned as a partner at Plastic Surgery Associates with Dr. Morales, and seems to be taking most of the new cleft lip and palate cases.

Parent Comments:

"Dr. Schmelzer is [our son]'s surgeon. We decided to continue with him after meeting Dr. Morales at a clinic in April. The entire family was not pleased with him as a surgeon as well as he scared the crap out of [our son]. We will either be seeing Dr. Schmelzer in Az or when he comes to St. George to see patients. . . . AWESOME bedside manner, great with kids, fantastic work and you know what to expect from surgery. Best in the West!"

"We have seen morales since our Adam was born in January 2009, and just this June Schmelzer performed Adam's hard palate repair because we now live in Arizona and had a very small window of vacation and morales was already booked into December. I too was skeptical because I had not even met Schmelzer prior to the day of surgery, but after the surgery was done I was VERY impressed. He is very capable and I will continue to see him. He does things differently than morales, I am glad we had morales up to this point for the prosthesis, but I really did like Schmelzer."

"My daughter has Dr Schmelzer. He is the type of dr that goes in to get the job done. I like him as a dr but if you are looking so someone that takes the time to get to know you than he is not the one to use. He has done 2 out of 3 surgeries for my daughter and I am pleased with his work she looks great. So it really depends how social you want to be with your dr."

"We scheduled a consultation with Dr. Morales for our son, because he came highly recommended. When we got to the appointment we met with Dr. Schmelzer. I really felt like the entire office was trying to pull a fast one on us. Almost trying to convince us that Schmelzer was in fact Morales. I have no idea if Schmelzer is a capable surgeon. I wasn't about to trust him with the most important thing in the world to me (my son!) when I felt deceived by him right out of the gate."

Surgeon Profile: Dr. Kjar

Contact Information:

Premier Plastic Surgery of Utah

1551 Renaissance Towne Dr #360

Bountiful, UT 84010

Get Directions

(801) 295-9105

drkjar.com‎

Parent Comments:

"Doctor Kjar does things differently that anyone in the state but does it the same as everyone in the country. This is our treatment plan:

"He had his lip repair on October 12th. It was a great success and he looks great! I saw someone in Walmart today that I haven't seen in years and when I told he had just had his lip repair surgery she told me she would have never guessed anything had even been wrong.

"He will have his palate repair three to six months from now. Dr. Kjar likes to repair earlier for a few reasons. The main being the palate muscles are repaired correctly if the whole palate is repaired in one surgery instead of two. This helps with speech among many other things. He will have to have a NAM (retainer from Dr. Yamashiro) until that point. But we are confident with his plan.

"Then follow basically the same timeline as everyone else. Bone graft around 7 years old, possbile mid-face surgery, etc. The mid-face surgery can be necessary no matter when the palate is repaired according to the research I have done. By mid-face I mean, the upper jaw doesn't grow forward like it should and has to be repaired.

"On top of the treatment plan working for our needs, our doctor is wonderful. We never have a problem getting in to see him, he is completely available any time of the day. He have his office number, cell number, and pager number. His staff is knowledgeable and very helpful."
 

Surgeon Profile: Dr. Muntz

Contact Information:
 
Harlan R. Muntz, M.D.

Otolaryngology - ENT
Head & Neck Surgery
50 North Medical Drive
Salt Lake City, Utah 84132

801-662-1740

U of U Profile

Parent Comments:
"We really like Dr. Muntz. I know he has done several ... [mandibular] distractions for people who are part of this group. He is an ENT doctor. He also specializes in repairing cleft palates if that is a concern for your child. I like being able to have one doctor be able to take care of all of our daughter's needs. If your [child] has a cleft lip or something external, you will most likely need a plastic surgeon." 

"Dr. Muntz is a GREAT ENT. He's been my son's 4th ENT and we LOVE him. He's put in tubes, removed his tonsils/adenoids and dealt with Ayden's sleep apnea wonderfully!  That being said, I would not use an ENT for any kind of recontructive surgery like cleft repairs."

 "Dr. Muntz is a great doctor.  He is our son's ENT.  He put tubes in at 2.5 months and has been checking up on our son ever since.  I really like how positive, quick, but thorough he is.  We've never seen anything that we didn't like in him."

"He is great and has an excellent bed side manner."

 "I like Muntz as an ENT for personal reasons--he has an EXCELLENT bedside--which is good to have with an ear doctor when they are in pain."

"My son is seen by Dr. Muntz. We love him!!! I can not say enough praises about him, and the amazing surgeon he is. He preformed a Mandibular Distraction and repaired his cleft palate. The mandibular distraction is a HUGE surgery and I never once doubted the surgeon we choose. He often calls us in the evenings so my husband and I can both be on the phone when he tells us results from testing. There was never a time we could not get ahold of him, even in the middle of the night. And, he is always willing to see us on the spur of the moment, even if that means our appointment keeps him at the office till 7 at night. My husband is in his final year of medical school and he has decided to become an ENT because of Dr. Muntz. Good luck with your decision. It is a big one, but I know you will be pleased with any of the doctors at Primarys."

A note on choosing a surgeon

I have tried to put together a snapshot of the surgeons that work at PCMC, including comments that parents have made about them. However, I found that this was only semi-helpful because everyone had so many good things to say about all of the surgeons. A recurring pattern in messages among the Utah Kids with Clefts group goes something like this:

"Our surgeon is Dr. So-and-So. We LOVE him. He does amazing work, and we like such-and-such about his personality and/or practice. But we have heard great things about all of the surgeons at PCMC, so you really can't go wrong."

While it is nice to know you can't go wrong, it doesn't help in the narrowing-down process for new parents that just want some direction. So you may want to contact the surgeons or even meet with them individually, and keep a couple of things in mind:

• Personality matters. Handing your little one over to a doctor is a hard thing, and even if you know your doctor will do a great job, it's tough when you don't mesh with their personality. Some people will love a doctor's bedside manner, and others will hate it. See how you feel, because everyone is different.
• Although most of the doctors at PCMC have similar timelines, there are some definite differences, including how they mold the child's lip or palate (using a removable molding device, a chain, or a surgically implanted prosthesis), how they do bone grafts (removing bone from the hip or using a chemical protein), etc. Talk to parents that have experienced both, and see how you feel (this is where joining the group is a huge help!).
• Who does your insurance cover? Usually you will have a choice between a couple of surgeons, but your insurance may narrow things down for you.
  

As a side note, in the profiles of each surgeon I tried to include comments that were more telling about the surgeons than "We love him!" There were many, many comments to that effect about all of the doctors. I also tried to take a representative sample of the comments without having any bias toward my son's surgeon. But so you know, we use Dr. Morales, and you can take that into account when considering the comments that I have included.

Surgeon Profile: Dr. Warnock

Contact Information:

Steven H. WArnock, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Premier Plastic Surgery Group of Utah
11762 S. State Street, Suite 220
Draper, UT 84020

(801) 571-2020

Cleft blog:  http://www.drwarnockcleft.com/www.drwarnockcleft.com/Home/Home.html
General Website: http://www.drstevenwarnock.com/cleft-lip-and-palate

Parent Comments:

"Dr. Warnock has been our surgeon and he has been excellent... We have appreciated Dr. Warnock's bedside manner and his willingness to spend a lot of time explaining procedures and reassuring us. He has also been open to alternate timelines for repairs, which worked for us since we wanted [our baby's] soft and hard palate repaired simultaneously at 9 months rather than wait until age 3 or 4 for the hard palate repair."

"Dr. Warnock... was great. I really felt like he answered all of my questions and was willing to take the time with us and our son. He explained the surgeries and what they would be doing in each of them."

"He is AWESOME! He did such a wonderful job on my son. People don't even know about the cleft unless we tell them anymore. We fly from [far away] to Utah for his surgeries and Warnock is so worth it."

"...We love him. I think he is excellent and has done amazing work on our sweet boy. He is such a kind man."

"He is so patient and willing to talk and answer questions any time. We have also emailed a few times and I have even sent him pictures... and asked for comments on healing."

"My son had a bilateral cleft lip and palate ... and we have Dr. Warnock. I'm so pleased with him, his mannerism and his openness to discussing options and really taking the input and opinions of myself and my husband into account. Dr. Warnock's bedside manner is great and he's always been very patient and very understanding. His staff I also have to comment on, since they are fantastic as well."

"I think he is awesome, he answered all of our questions and really put me at ease as far as the surgeries go."

"We see Dr. Warnock as our plastic and I LOVE him!! He is so good ... all of our questions. He is also so patient with our daughter!! Can't say enough good about him!!"

"I really like Dr. Warnock. He was able to answer all of my questions(I had a lot) He explains things very well and truly loves what he does."

"He has lots of experience and a good bedside manner. He is always open to questions and is good to responding to my emails. I tend to ask a lot of questions and bring up concerns, but he has always made me feel comfortable and willing ti accomodate my needs."

"Dr. Warnock did a beautiful job and he made us feel comfortable before and after [surgery]."

"Dr. Warnock ... is amazing. He takes the time to answer your questions and is very thorough. He did an amazing job on my babies soft palate repair. Dr. Warnock also trained under Dr. Morales 8 years ago and is really good."

"Dr. Warnock is our surgeon and he is wonderful. Very skilled, very professional, and very personable as well. No question too dumb! ;)"

"We used Dr. Warnock, and we have been very happy with him so far ([our son] has only had 1 surgery at this point). He is very good to answer questions and to listen to concerns. We also appreciate that his office is in Draper, since we live in Utah County."

"We used Dr. Warnock and love him. I felt very comfortable with him and he was very thorough in explaining what was going to happen and how to proceed. I asked a lot of questions and he really took the time to answer all of them and put me and my husband at ease!"

Surgeon Profile: Dr. Siddiqi

Contact Information:

Faizi A. Siddiqi, M.D., F.A.C.S.
The University of Utah Division of Plastic Surgery
30 North 1900 EAst, 3B205
Salt Lake City, UT 84132

(801) 581-5132

faizi.siddiqi@hsc.utah.edu

U of U profile

Parent Comments:

"We have used Dr. Faizi Siddiqi as our plastic surgeon and he has done a wonderful job... We were actually refered to Dr. Siddiqi [someone] who worked in same day surgery up at PCMC... She did a poll with all of the nurses up there and asked if they had a child with a cleft, who would they choose to do the surgery. Almost all of them said Dr. Siddiqi, so that is why we chose him and we are so glad we did."

"...He has been wonderful. I think his work is great, and he has an excellent bedside manner. He has done multiple prosthesis insertions/changes as well as [our baby's] lip repair, soft palate repair and hard palate repair. He also did a couple laser treatments to help decrease the redness of [our baby's] lip scar (the scar is a bit red because of genetics and the way he heals, not because of the surgeon) He has really gone out of his way to help us and to accommodate our needs rather then his...I'm sure you'll love him."

"We have used Dr. Siddiqi as our surgeon for both of our boys. We love him so much and he is so good to our kids."

"Our surgeon is Dr. Siddiqi and we LOVE him. He has performed miracles for both of our little boys and we will forever be grateful to him for the beautiful work that he has done. "

"He does such a great job and has great bedside manner. He is so patient with all of our questions and our kids really like him. "

"We ... like how personable Dr. Siddiqi is, and he has a great sense of humor."

"We went with Doc. Siddiqi and loved him!! He really took the time to make us feel comfortable before she had her surgery as well as after. He has great bedside manner and really takes the time to answer any questions we may have had. [Our baby's] lip looks amazing!!!!"

"I found out Dr. Siddiqi does a new procedure using some kind of protein stuff instead of bone. They have had wonderful success with it and recovery time is so much easier and faster. The protein actually makes their old bone grow new bone.... I heard people and medical professionals say how well Dr. Siddiqi does on the mouth and lip repair so I went to see him at Primary Children's Hospital. I'm glad I found him."

"We chose Dr. Siddiqi because he took time out of his day to come see my twins [one] has UCLP [the other] has BCLP a couple days after they were born. They were in the NICU at the time and he had the nurses tape the lips closed. I think that helped a lot with stretching the skin. I like him a lot he is the kind of doctor me and my husband love. Not sooo grumpy but will tell you what you need to know and all the other stuff. My one twin couldn't go home when the other one was ready so he gave us the choice to keep them both in or take one home.  We decided to keep them both in I thought that was super cool of him."

Surgeon Profile: Dr. Motoki

Contact Information:

David S. Motoki
Premier Plastic Surgery Group of Utah
11762 S. State Street, #220
Draper, UT 84020

(801) 571-2020

http://www.premierplasticsurgerygroup.com/davidMotoki.html

Parent Comments:

"We have been with Dr. Motoki from the very start and love him. [Our child]'s lip looks so good."

"My daughter's surgeon is Motoki, he is awesome. At first I didn't think that he had very good bedside manners, but as time has went on, he has gotten alot better. I was devastated at first and had a lot of questions, and his receptionist ... was great, explaining things to me, every time we went to his office she would come sit by me and talk. And I would even call her on the phone with questions and she would take time to talk to me."

"I would recommend Dr. Motoki. We have been with him from the begaining and he has always done a wonderful job with the repairs. I've never felt uncomfortable asking a dumb question, and he explains things well... He's been good at what he does, putting us at ease and treats us with respect. Sometime a specialist can come off high and mighty and I never get that from him."

"We have Dr. Motoki and we love him. I also love his staff."

"He is wonderful, and conservative, which I love!"

"His work is awesome."

"We chose Dr. Motoki and have been really happy with him so far. He's not the best at small talk, but you know he'll be straight with you about the good and the bad things that can happen. My husband and I really need that. Also, we can always get in touch with his nurse (who is super friendly and nice!) when we have questions."

"We also use Dr. Motoki for [our child]'s cleft palate and he has been wonderful. I don't know if you know this but Dr. Morales trained him 20 years ago and we are confident in his skills. I could go on and on about some other reasons why we chose him but I won't bore everyone with that. I have been very frustrated with other Dr.s on the team and Dr. Motoki has validated them and supported our choice to have [our child] treated by another ENT. So remember when choosing a surgeon there are a lot members involved and the surgeon is a small portion, but very important one."

Surgeon Profile: Dr. Morales

Contact Information:

Dr. Louis Morales Jr., M.D.
5089 S. 900 E., Suite 100
Salt Lake City, UT 84117

(801) 743-0700

pclmoral@IHC.com

louismoralesmd.com
(note: the website is for all plastic surgery, and doesn't particularly address cleft palate repair, though it does review his education, credentials and awards. Don't be surprised if some interesting before/after pictures of other cosmetic surgeries pop up. This is the case for all of the surgeons' websites that I've visited)

Parent Comments:

"We use Dr. Morales and we love him. We have 2 little boys with clefts ... Dr. Morales has done all of their surgeries ... so we have a great deal of trust and respect for him."

"Dr. Morales is our surgeon, and we LOVE him. He does an excellent job. He is great with [our child] who is a busy, talkative [boy]. He has been [our son's] surgeon since birth... I would
HIGHLY recommend Dr. Morales, He is simply the best. He is calm and reassuring and he always takes the time to answer all my questions and concerns about a procedure."

"My opinion is that Morales does the best lip repairs. We have Schmelzer and we really like him. But, I still think Morales is best for lips. I like Schmelzer's time-line for other surgeries better, but if you are only dealing with the lip and not the palate then I would definitely vote Morales." (Dr. Schmelzer was Dr. Morales' partner, but now has moved to Arizona)

"We have used Dr. Morales ... and just love him. He has been practicing for over 25 years, so he is very well experienced and he continually amazes us with the work he has done."

"Everyone has their own experience and every cleft is different, but what Morales did for both of my sons worked very well for their speech. He also assured us that he uses his technique for a reason and that he has had not only very good speech results this way, but also a very low rate of a need for p-flaps. I'm not trying to say that one doctor's way is better than another, but with both of my boys, the way he has repaired it has really made for optimal speech results, so I have a lot of faith in it. "

"Our surgeon is Dr. Morales and I do personally think he is the best. We are SOOOO happy with the results!!!! You really can hardly tell that he had a cleft now and it was very severe when he was born."

"My son ... had 5 surgeries in the first year of his life Dr. Morales is his surgeon. I am very happy with the care and time he took with [my son] and answering all our questions."

"We had Dr. Morales and we were ... warned of his bedside manner. I thought he did a wonderful job and he was always very nice when we met with him."

"We have Dr. Morales and have had a really really wonderful result. A lot of people don't like his bedside manner but we think he is an artist when it comes to surgery. My son has a BCLP and it was quite severe but now you can hardly tell."

"We have Dr. Morales at PCMC. We LOVE the results of our son's surgeries so far. He doesn't always have the best bedside manner - very professional but not extremely friendly - but we think he is an amazing surgeon."

"Dr. Morales is very well known throughout the country in craniofacial and cleft reconstruction. He had been handing [my child's] case, but then suggested that we have Dr. Schmelzer [perform one particular procedure]. Dr. Morales felt that Dr. Schmelzer had more experience with the apparatus from training under Dr. Ferron in Dallas. I was extremely impressed with Dr. Morales that he would put his ego aside and suggest that another surgeon perform the procedure."

"Our surgeon is Dr. Morales and we think he's fantastic! (The only complaint I've heard about him from anyone is that his bedside manner leaves something to be desired, he's not the warm, fuzzy kind of doctor, but we've never had anything but positive experiences with him.)"

"Dr. Morales did [my child's] lip/nose repair. Totally amazing job, but I feel that my office visits lacked, so I changed to Dr. Warnock... I do not enjoy saying that I changed from Dr. Morales, but I am too sensitive and his bedside was really bad during a hard time for me."

"A family member asked the coordinator of the craniofacial team at Loma Linda (in California) if she recommended anyone from PCMC, and she immediately recommended Dr. Morales. So far he has done our son's prosthesis and lip repair and has been amazing. He is pretty to-the-point in our appointments, but we like that about him, and he is friendly and glad to answer our questions. And we love his staff, too!"

"I also was born with a cleft lip/palate. Dr. Morales did the last few surgeries that I needed. In those few surgeries, he revised several of the surgeries I had already had... Almost every single person that finds out about my birth defect are amazed at my repair. They can't even tell I have a cleft lip/palate... Dr. Morales is also who was recommended by my ENT and pediatrician...
As a mother, what I have not liked about Dr. Morales is not all important information was shared with us. For example, somehow we weren't told about the restraints required for TWO MONTHS until after his surgery. It really hasn't been that big a deal ... BUT, the surgery was quick and efficient... Also, if bedside manner is super important to you, you may not like Dr. Morales. Although, my husband thought he was fine."

What is the cleft palate "team", and when should I meet with them?

The following are some guidelines provided by LeAnn Roling, the previous Cleft Palate Clinic Coordinator at Primary Children's Medical Center:

The team is made up of:

• Dr. Yamashiro - team director, orthodontist
• Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctor
• Plastic Surgeon
• Speech Therapy/Feeding Specialist
• Social Worker and social work survey
• Finance person from the Utah Department of Health
• Audiology Visit
• Updated: Natalee Lyon - Cleft Palate Clinic Coordinator

If your little one is not having problems with eating, failed hearing screens, or ear infections it is ok to wait to see the team until 12-14 months of age. At that age we want to start working on speech and want the entire team involved.

You will come to team before that if:

• Your surgeon requests it
• Your baby is having feeding problems and/or any kind of concern that several members of the team should address.

Then we will plan to see your child once a year in the team setting, but of course you will follow up with single members of the team more frequently than that.