A.3. What is the incidence of an orofacial cleft?
Answer:
Cleft lip and cleft palate can occur together or separately. A cleft lip with or without a cleft palate is more common in males, whereas an isolated cleft palate is more common in females. In a large, international perinatal database, the overall prevalence of cleft lip with or without cleft palate was 9.92 per 10,000. The prevalence of cleft lip was 3.28 per 10,000, and that of cleft lip and palate was 6.64 per 10,000. Of 10,000 cases, there were 5,918 cases (76.8%) that were isolated, 1,224 (15.9%) had malformations in other systems, and 562 (7.3%) occurred as part of recognized syndromes. Cases with greater dysmorphology of the cleft lip with or without cleft palate were more likely to include malformations of other systems.
The highest incidence of a cleft lip and a cleft palate occurs among Asians (1.61:1,000 births), whereas the lowest incidence is in African Americans (0.3:1,000 births). The incidence in Whites is intermediate (0.9:1,000 births).
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