Assessment of the posteroanterior cephalograms of the parents of children with cleft lip and/or cleft palate in Latvia.

OBJECTIVE To compare the craniofacial morphology of parents of children with cleft lip with or without palate (CL±P), children with isolate cleft palate (CP) and individuals without family history of orofacial clefting in Latvia. MATERIALS AND METHODS Posteroanterior (PA) cephalograms were obtained from all participants: 37 couples of noncleft biological parents of children with nonsyndromic CL±P and 17 couples of noncleft biological parents of children with nonsyndromic CP (the parents groups were made dividing the parents after gender and children cleft type). The control groups consisted of 40 females and 42 males, who had no history of clefts in the family. A conventional cephalometric analysis was used to measure various measurements of facial widths. RESULTS Statistically significant differences (decreased facial and biorbital width) were found between fathers of children with CP and males from the control group. Results showed asymmetry of zygomatic width (left side dominance) in all parents groups compared with the control groups. The asymmetry was detected in maxillary part (left side dominance) in CP children mothers and females and males control groups. CONCLUSION Some statistical significant differences in the PA cephalometric measurements among parents groups of children with CL±P and CP, and control groups were found. However the differences among study groups and the control groups were small, often not larger than variations in the population.