Craniofacial Morphology of Parents with and without Cleft Lip and Palate Children

Abstract

The present study concerns the analysis of craniofacial structures in a group of parents, without any history of a cleft lip and palate, who had a cleft lip and palate child. Genetic contribution of craniofacial structures, which in particular combinations , may favor a predisposition toward cleft lip and palate produc— tion served as the basic premise for the study. Trasler's (5) study of early face embryology demonstrated that topography and growth of the facial processes between two strains of mice (inbred A/J) and the (C57BL/6J) are causally related to the A/J predisposition to cleft lip. Some investigators (2) feel that " parents of children with congenital cleft lip should have faces that are on the average of a different shape than those of the general population. " Their faith in inherited facial characteristics compelled them to measure superficial dimensions of the face to ascertain differences between two groups of parents—«one of which had a cleft lip and palate child. Other investigators (4) have stated " that the morphology of all the bones of the craniofacial complex are under rather rigid control of hereditary forces. .. " and further " that heredity governs morphology but environment in its multitudinous facets has much to say about how these bony elements shall combine to achieve what interests us most—the harmonious (or unharmonious) head and face. " In a comprehensive revier of cleft lip and palate embryology, pathology, anatomy, and etiology done by Canick (1), he states the following: " The geneticists have shown the influence of genes, whether they be dominant, recessive, incompletely sex linked, of reduced penetrance, and so forth. Their findings deserve the most careful considerations, not because various workers have shown a hereditary disposition up to forty percent of the cases of cleft lip and palate, but rather Dr. Peter