Objective: To determine the presence of specific patterns of dental defects in a group of individuals born with clefts.
Design: Case-control.
Setting: Nossa Senhora do Loreto Municipal Hospital and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Pediatric Dentistry Clinics, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Patients: 642 radiographic and clinical records were evaluated for 321 cases and 321 controls.
Results: Individuals born with clefts presented considerably more dental anomalies in comparison with controls (p = .0001). The most frequent was tooth agenesis (n = 53; p = .001), followed by supernumerary teeth (n = 14; p = .11) and tooth malposition (n = 11; p = .33). Regarding tooth agenesis, the upper lateral incisors were more frequently absent in the cleft group (31/86), and control individuals presented more agenesis of the mandibular second premolars (19/45).
Conclusions: The higher prevalence of dental anomalies, especially number anomalies, opposite the cleft area, in individuals born with cleft lip and/or palate is the most common associated dental anomaly outside the cleft area.