Dental Anomalies in Children with Unilateral and Bilateral Cleft Lip and Palate

Background: Dental anomalies is common feature of cleft lip and palate cases. Clefting is not an isolated condition but rather part of a broader spectrum of malformations involving both facial structures and tooth developmentObjective: To determine and compare the frequency of dental anomalies among children with unilateral and bilateral cleft palateMaterials and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at the outpatient department of Bacha Khan Dental College, Mardan, involving 82 participants aged 4 to 20 years. Patient history, clinical examination, and panoramic radiographs were employed to identify common dental anomalies, like lateral incisor agenesis, supernumerary teeth, peg-shaped lateral incisor, lateral incisor microdontia, agenesis of the maxillary second premolar, and enamel hypoplasia. The Chi-square test was used to compare dental anomalies between unilateral and bilateral cleft palate cases, with the significance level set at p < 0.05.Results: The age was 12.12 ± 5.21 years, with a gender distribution of 28 (34.15%) females and 54 (65.85%) males. Unilateral cleft palate (n=56, 68.29%) was more common than bilateral (n=26, 31.71%). The frequency of dental anomalies included 37.80% exhibiting lateral incisor agenesis, 21.95% supernumerary teeth, 17.07% peg-shaped lateral incisor, 17.07% lateral incisor microdontia, 20.73% agenesis of the second premolar, and 9.76% clinical enamel hypoplasia. No statistical significant difference was found for all dental anomalies between unilateral and bilateral cleft palate (p>0.05).Conclusion: Dental anomalies are quite prevalent in both unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) and bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP) patients. Importantly, no statistically significant differences were observed between these two groups.Keywords: Bilateral, Cleft lip and palate, Dental anomalies, Unilateral.