Cleft lip and palate

QVH hosts clinics on behalf of the South Thames cleft lip and palate service provided by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

This provides specialist services for children and adults with this condition. Treatment and care is provided by a multi-disciplinary team including orthodontists and dentists with specialist nurses and speech and language therapists.

Page last updated: 2 January 2024.

Mr Alex Cash

Specialist interests: Management of adult and child routine and complex orthodontics cases with super specialist interest in cleft lip and palate and jaw disproportion.

Mr Cash is the clinical director of the orthodontic service at the Queen Victoria Hospital and the lead orthodontic consultant for cleft care in South East England. He works both at QVH and in London at St. Thomas’, the central hub for the South Thames Cleft Service.

He took his first posts in paediatric dentistry, orthodontics and oral and maxillofacial surgery after graduating from Guy’s Dental Hospital in 1993. Before specialising in orthodontics, he continued his general professional training and postgraduate education with further experience in a busy London dental practice and gained excellent surgical experience at the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading and St. George’s Hospital in London.

Alex completed his specialist orthodontic training in the centres at Guy’s, Kingston and QVH, presenting a biomaterials thesis as part of his Masters in 2000. Alex was appointed consultant orthodontist at Guy’s & St. Thomas’ and QVH in 2003 where he enjoys clinical work, leadership and the teaching of both postgraduates and undergraduates.

Alex is a past chairman of the South East Regional Orthodontic and the South Thames Cleft Lip and Palate Audit and Outcome Groups. He continues to be involved with the British Orthodontic Society and he is a past chairman of the Training Grades Group. Alex has also been the Secretary General of the Federation of European Orthodontists for the past eight years. Alex is a Royal College of Surgeons and King’s College London examiner on the post graduate program and has spent much time teaching and supervising many postgraduate MSc theses and several PhD theses as well.

Alex is a past chairman of the South East Regional Orthodontic and the South Thames Cleft Lip and Palate Outcome and Audit Groups and represented his peers when chairman of the Training Grades Group of the British Orthodontic Society. He works for his specialist society and sits on British Orthodontic Society committees.

Alex’s areas of specialist clinical interest are in the management of both routine orthodontic cases as well as more complex facial concerns including cleft lip and palate and jaw disproportion. He works closely with his maxillofacial and plastic surgery colleagues and also with local general and specialist practitioners in all areas of paediatric and adult orthodontics. Alex enjoys placing the patient at the centre of their care to enable the best possible clinical outcome.