My boyfriend's family has cleft lip. Is it hereditary?

Is cleft lip hereditary in my boyfriend's family? Cleft lip is hereditary. Many times, we see children with cleft lip in the news. Although cleft lip is hereditary, there are still many ways to treat cleft lip with current medical technology. Therefore, you don't need to worry too much. Today we will introduce this disease to you, and hope that you will have a better understanding of cleft lip.

Is cleft lip hereditary?

Cleft lip, commonly known as cleft lip, missing mouth, or gaping mouth, is a common congenital malformation of the oral and maxillofacial region. The incidence rate is about 1.82‰, and there are more than 1.7 million patients nationwide. It is a multi-gene genetic disease. The incidence rate is relatively low, but it is not as terrible as some people imagine. As long as it is treated early, it will basically not affect the child's normal life in the future. During the formation of the human embryo, the face and mouth are formed by the fusion of many protrusions. When the embryo is 4 to 6 weeks old, it is the time when these protrusions fuse. If some factors affect the fusion of these protrusions at this time, other parts of the cleft lip will crack.

The main manifestation of cleft lip is the cleft of the upper lip, which can be divided into three degrees according to the location and degree of the cleft.

1. First degree cleft lip is only a split of the red lip.

2. Second degree cleft lip means the cleft goes beyond the red lip but does not reach the bottom of the nose.

3. The third degree cleft lip is a complete cleft from the red lips to the bottom of the nose. The first two are also called incomplete cleft lip, and the last one is called complete cleft lip.

Can cleft lip be passed down from one generation to the next?

Cleft lip is also called cleft lip and palate. Generally, it may occur in the early stages of pregnancy due to viral infection or emotional confusion. However, the probability is not very high, so there is no need to worry too much. If pregnant women are always worried about this or that, they will always be nervous and uneasy, which will not only affect the pregnant women, but also the healthy development of the baby. Cleft lip is a multi-gene genetic disease, and the probability of inheritance among relatives is higher, with an incidence rate of 1‰ and a recurrence risk of 4%. If the father is a patient, the incidence rate of offspring is 3%, and if the mother is a patient, the incidence rate of offspring is 14%. Therefore, many cleft lip patients can be found among relatives or grandparents.

However, in addition to genetic factors, pregnant women's bad living habits, smoking, monotonous diet, virus infection during pregnancy, etc. can also cause fetal cleft lip. Therefore, pregnant women must do pre-pregnancy check-ups as early as possible to prevent it.

Is Cleft Lip Invisible Hereditary?

Hidden cleft lip means that the skin and mucous membranes are not cracked, but the muscle layer below is poorly developed, resulting in a shallow groove-like depression at the philtral ridge on the side of the cleft and a separation of the lip peak and other deformities. Hidden cleft lip has a great impact on children, but some babies have hidden cleft lip but their parents don’t know about it. In fact, hidden cleft lip is a cleft lip that is not easy to find. The phenomenon of this condition in newborns is very high. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. Genetics and the mother’s age of birth can lead to this situation.

Patients with hidden cleft lip may find similar deformities in their direct or collateral relatives, so it is believed that cleft lip deformity is related to heredity. Epidemiological surveys show that the incidence of cleft lip in the offspring of direct relatives with cleft lip deformity is higher than that of relatives without cleft lip deformity. Genetic studies also believe that cleft lip is a polygenic genetic disease.