Why do people have cleft lips? is it just a common birth defect or a genetic thing?

Question

i mean i see it in quite a few people but ive never really thought about it.except for a scar above the lips, its not really that harmful or major is it?

Answer 1

It is a birth defect & not genetic

Answer 2

Ooo c'mon now you guys..It's NOT all genetic!!  Sure, SOME are..My daughter's cleft is an isolated cleft lip and palate which means it was NOT genetic!  It occurs in 1 and 600 births so it is pretty common..Harmful, not so much..Major, well it can be "fixed"..If you ask me if it's major when I've taken my daughter into have her face reconstructed 2 times in one year, yeah, I think it is..BUT it could have been a lot worse..   www.cleftline.org  under stories of the month you'll see Ella Yvonne and another one named "what a year can do" with my stories and pictures of here..You'll find SO much information there as well..UGH..I HATE when people chime in on answers that have NO idea what they are talking about and give wrong information..Sorry 'bout that..I get a little defensive when it comes to that...There are feeding issues, hearing issues, speech,dental, surgery after surgery..It's ongoing until late teens or later..There's a lot more that goes into it than just a scar..We're going on our 3rd set of tubes which makes this her 3rd surgery..She'll have a little "nose job" at 5 if needed..Another surgery for a bone graft taken out of her hip to fill in her gumline, major dental work, and tubes all in between when needed..Speech therapy is ongoing as well..Time and patience but that girl is AMAZING!!  As far as why it happened..Didn't smoke or drink, no drugs, no family history, not due to lack of folic acid..It just happened...

Answer 3

It is genetic. Also when a woman is pregnant the doctor's can check for the cleft pallet, if it is in the family. My friend had a surgery to remove hers and she just has a cute little scar on her lip.

Answer 4

It can be either genetic, or naturally occurring.  People with clefts themselves have more of a chance of having a cleft-affected baby than those parents who don't have clefts.  But with it being common - about 1/700 (depending on race), the vast majority aren't genetic.

Cleft lips alone are not exactly "harmful or major" - but to the parents of a cleft affected child they certainly are major.  It's not nice seeing your wee baby go through what is quite a long surgery to repair a cleft lip.  There can be feeding issues as well, and often rhinoplasty (nose job) is required.  Depending on the severity of the cleft lip, mroe than one sugeries may be required.  (They can be unilateral or bilateral, complete or incomplete).

Another thing that often happens, is that the gum (alveolar ridge) and palate (hard and/orsoft roof of mouth) can also be affected.  If the palate is affected, this really is more of a major, requiring a lot more surgery to correct it, and often including bone grafts, dental and orthodontic work -  right through to the teenage years (and sometimes beyond).  There are obviously feeding issues too.

Answer 5

Genetic and these days, there are different kinds of surgery to make it normal especially if they are still babies.