Cleft Lip & Palate
Oral clefts, such as cleft lip and/or palate, are one of the most common birth defects in children affecting about 10 out of every 10,000 babies born in the United States.1 They may exist alone or as part of an inherited disease or syndrome. Both genetic and environmental factors contribute to oral clefts. Although oral clefts can be repaired to varying degrees with surgery, researchers are working to understand how these conditions develop and how to prevent the condition or treat it more effectively.
Prevalence of Cleft Lip & Cleft Palate
The annual prevalence of children born with cleft lip with or without cleft palate in the United States is approximately 10 in 10,000 (Table 1). Families with children born with cleft lip and/or palate face an economic burden. Average health care costs for children ages 1 to 10 years with cleft palate only and both cleft lip and palate are about six times higher than average costs for children without oral clefts, and are three times higher for children with only a cleft lip.2 A study of hospitalization charges in 2007 for cleft palate (with or without cleft lip) surgery found an average charge of $19,227 per procedure; the total hospitalization cost of these procedures for the entire United States was nearly $112.96 million.3 An earlier study found that lifetime costs (including direct costs for medical, developmental, and special education services and indirect costs of lost work/productivity) for each child with cleft lip and/or palate were $101,000, with U.S. lifetime treatment costs for affected children totaling $697 million.4
Table 1. Average annual prevalence of cleft lip and/or palate and number of births affected by these defects: United States, 2016–2020
| Birth Defect | Prevalence* | Annual Number of Cases | Cases per births |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleft Lip with or without Cleft Palate | 9.69 | 3,560 | 1 in 1,032 |
| Cleft Lip with Cleft Palate | 6.32 | 2,321 | 1 in 1,583 |
| Cleft Lip Only | 3.38 | 1,240 | 1 in 2,963 |
| Cleft Palate Only | 6.32 | 2,321 | 1 in 1,583 |
* Prevalence per 10,000 live births
Cleft lip and/or palate prevalence estimates are from 2016–2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Birth Defects Prevention Network (NBDPN) data. Data were collected from 13 states and territory: California (10 counties), Delaware, Hawaii (2016–2017 only), Iowa, Massachusetts, metropolitan Atlanta (3 counties), North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas (2016–2019 only), and Utah, representing 4,141,961 live births and adjusted for maternal race/ethnicity.
References
1 Stallings EB, Isenburg JL, Rutkowski RE, Kirby RS, Nembhard WN, Sandidge T, et al. National population-based estimates for major birth defects, 2016-2020. Birth Defects Res. 2024 Jan;116(1):e2301. doi: 10.1002/bdr2.2301.
2 Boulet SL, Grosse SD, Honein MA, Correa-Villaseñor A. Children with orofacial clefts: Health-care use and costs among a privately insured population. Public Health Rep. 2009 May-Jun;124(3):447-53. doi: 10.1177/003335490912400315.
3 Allareddy V, Turkistani K, Nanda V, Allareddy V, Gajendrareddy P, Venugopalan SR. Factors associated with hospitalization charges for cleft palate repairs and revisions. J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2012 Aug;70(8):1968-77. doi: 10.1016/j.joms.2011.07.026. Epub 2011 Oct 19.
4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Economic costs of birth defects and cerebral palsy—United States, 1992. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1995 Sep 22;44(37):694-9.
June 2026