Frequency of Cleft Lip and Palate in Orthodontic Patients Reporting to Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry, PAKISTAN

Cleft lip and palate is a social and functionally crippling problem. It is necessary to assess the degree of this problem in our society. The goal of thin study was to assess the number of cleft lip and palate patients in orthodontic patients reporting to Armed Forces institute of Dentistry (AFID), Rawalpindi, from 2001 through 2006.
1118 consecutive patients reporting to AFID were included in the study. 18 were excluded based on inadequate records. Records were evaluated for the presence of clefts, impacted and missing teeth.
1% patients were found to have various kinds of clefts. 72.7% were female and the rest were male. Their mean age was 16.5 years. Bilateral clefts were more common. Reverse overjet and missing maxillary lateral incisors were strongly associated with cleft lip and palate.
Cleft lip and palate is reasonably prevalent in our society. Genetic predisposition and environmental factors are equally important in governing its occurrence. Both these issues have to be considered to reduce the incidence of this problem in a developing country such as ours WO 2006; 1:154-7).