ABSTRACT
Background: A cleft occurs when certain body parts and structures do not fuse together during fetal development.Clefts can involve the lip and/or the roof of the mouth (palate). There are varying opinions on the actual incidenceof clefts. Some experts say that the highest cleft incidences are among Asians. As there are very few studiesregarding the incidence of cleft lip and palate in North Karnataka, this study was conducted.Materials and Methods: The data was collected from the patients of the hospital of ESIC Medical CollegeKalaburagi, Karnataka, India.Result: The occurrence of cleft lip was more compared to, in combination with cleft palate and cleft palate alone.The exact cause of cleft lip and palate is not known but most experts agree that the causes of cleft lip and/orpalate are multifactorial and may include a genetic predisposition, as well as environmental or nutritionalfactors. In this study the type of malformation, the difference in the gender of patients, the parental age duringmarriage and the consanguineous marriage are studied in detail. The Malformations were more on the left sidecompared to right side. This anomaly was observed more in male patients than female patients.Conclusion: As the parental age is one of the predisposing factor. In this study the age of parents was found lessthan Twenty years in most of the cases. The consanguineous marriage is also considered as one of the risk factor,this study found that most of the parents had consanguineous marriage.