Prevalence of Dental Anomalies in a Population of Cleft Lip and Palate Patients

Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate radiographically the prevalence of dental anomalies in a group of Jordanian cleft lip and/or palate subjects. Design: This is a retrospective review of panoramic radiographs of 78 subjects with cleft lip and/or palate that were evaluated from their file records and investigated for possible dental anomalies. Results: Dental anomalies were found frequently in cleft lip and/or palate subjects. Missing teeth were found in 66.7% of the patients; the tooth most commonly missing was the maxillary lateral incisor. Supernumerary teeth were found in 16.7% of patients; 37% had microdontia; 70.5% had taurodontism; 30.8% had transposition and/or ectopic teeth; 19.2% had dilacerations; and 30.8% had hypoplastic teeth. There was no statistically significant difference in the above anomalies' prevalence between males and females. However, it was found that subjects with bilateral cleft lip and/or palate had significantly more microdontia (p=.005), dilaceration (p=.002), and hypoplastic teeth (p=.0001) than subjects with unilateral cleft lip and/or palate. Conclusions: The prevalence of dental anomalies in cleft lip and/or palate patients was higher than what had been reported in the normal Jordanian population. This emphasizes the relation of cleft lip and/or palate to all dental anomalies studied. Although our study represents a thorough and complete description of dental anomalies present in a sample of cleft lip and/or palate subjects, larger samples are required to effectively determine the relationship of each dental anomaly with cleft type.