Craniofacial variability in parents of children with cleft lip and cleft palate.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are variations in the craniofacial morphology between parents of children with non-syndromic cleft lip and palate and normal controls with no history of cleft in the families in a Saudi sample. Frontal skull radiographs were obtained from a study group consisting of 40 couples, who have a child with cleft deformity and control group of 32 males and 35 females, who have no history of clefts in the family. A total of 18 landmarks were digitized for each individual by a custom made computer program. T-test, logistic regression analysis were applied to the data. Significant findings were obtained for both males and females of the affected children. The males displayed wider nasal cavity and a narrower maxillary width with asymmetry of the face. Females showed smaller facial dimension as a whole, and asymmetry of the face.