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Cleft lip and palate is due to tissues of the face not properly joining together during development. They are a type of birth defect. The cause in most cases is unknown. Risk factors include smoking during pregnancy, diabetes, an older mother, obesity, and certain medications such as some used to treat seizures.
Occurrence estimates range between 1/300 and 1/2500 births for cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CLP) and around 1/1500 births for cleft palate alone (CP) (1). It has been reported that CLP occurs more frequently in males, while the sex bias is reversed for CP, which is more common in females (2).