Objective: To explore the prevalence of oral clefting in northern Iran.
Setting: In the Dezyani hospital 37,951 live births from 1998 through 2003 were screened for oral clefts. Clinical and demographic factors of diagnosed cases, including birth date, ethnicity, type of oral cleft, parental consanguinity, and coexisting anomalies, were recorded for analysis.
Results: The overall prevalence of oral clefting was 0.97 per 1000 live births. The prevalence of cleft lip with or without cleft palate and isolated cleft palate was 0.60 and 0.37 per 1000, respectively. The prevalence of oral clefting was 1.08 per 1000 male births and 0.86 per 1000 female births. With respect to parental ethnicity, the prevalence of oral clefting was 0.86, 0.88, and 1.47 per 1000 in Fars, Turkman, and Sistani, respectively.
Conclusions: The prevalence of oral cleft among live births in the Dezyani hospital is similar to that reported in the previous studies for Iran and whites.