# Incidental Findings in Patients with Cleft Lip and Palate: A Case-Control Study
## 3 Results
### Occurrence of Incidental Findings in Each Anatomical Area  
The prevalences of IFs in the different anatomical areas are presented in Table 5. Statistically significant differences between cases and controls were observed in the following anatomical regions: maxilla, mandible, paranasal sinuses, nasal cavity, and TMJ structures. The case group presented a higher prevalence of IFs in all anatomical areas mentioned above compared with the control group.  
The most common anatomical location that demonstrated IFs in the case group was the maxilla followed by the nasal cavity, mandible, and paranasal sinuses. In the control group, most IFs occurred in the dentition, followed by TMJ and paranasal sinuses (Table 5).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c} \hline \hline
**Cases** & **No IFs** & **IFs** \\ \hline Females & 1 (5.6\%) & 17 (94.4\%) \\ Males & 0 (0.0\%) & 22 (100.0\%) \\ \(\chi^{2}=1.25\), dfs = 1, \(p=0.263\) (ns) & \\ \hline
**Controls** & **No IFs** & **IFs** \\ \hline Females & 15 (41.7\%) & 21 (58.3\%) \\ Males & 15 (34.1\%) & 29 (65.9\%) \\ \(\chi^{2}=0.48\), dfs = 1, \(p=0.486\) (ns) & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 4: Comparison of the prevalence of IFs by gender.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c} \hline \hline
**Maxilla** & **No IFs** & **IFs** \\ \hline Cases & 3 (7.5\%) & 37 (92.5\%) \\ Controls & 45 (56.3\%) & 35 (43.8\%) \\ \(\chi^{2}=26.4\), dfs = 1, \(p<0.001\) & & \\ \hline
**Mandible** & **No IFs** & **IFs** \\ \hline Cases & 14 (36.8\%) & 24 (63.2\%) \\ Controls & 47 (58.8\%) & 33 (41.3\%) \\ \(\chi^{2}=4.95\), dfs = 1, \(p=0.026\) & & \\ \hline
**Paranasal sinuses** & **No IFs** & **IFs** \\ \hline Cases & 16 (45.7\%) & 19 (54.3\%) \\ Controls & 73 (97.3\%) & 2 (2.7\%) \\ \(\chi^{2}=41.17\), dfs = 1, \(p<0.001\) & & \\ \hline
**Nasal cavity** & **No IFs** & **IFs** \\ \hline Cases & 8 (24.2\%) & 25 (75.8\%) \\ Controls & 66 (98.5\%) & 1 (1.5\%) \\ \(\chi^{2}=63.38\), dfs = 1, \(p<0.001\) & & \\ \hline
**TMJ structures** & **No IFs** & **IFs** \\ \hline Cases & 9 (52.9\%) & 8 (47.1\%) \\ Controls & 64 (85.3\%) & 11 (14.7\%) \\ \(\chi^{2}=8.87\), dfs = 1, \(p=0.003\) * & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 5: Comparison of prevalence of IFs by anatomical area.  
The most prevalent types of IFs detected in the maxilla of CL/P cases were tooth agenesis, microdontia, tooth malposition, ectopic tooth, and tooth rotation. Regarding the type of IFs reported in nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, and TMJ, the most common types in both case and control groups were deviated nasal septum and enlarged inferior nasal concha in nasal cavity, mucosal thickening, retention cysts, and obstructed sinus in paranasal sinuses and flat condylar margin in TMJ. No IFs were detected in the middle and inner ear, orbit, skull, and cervical spine regions of the participants in either group, while only 7.7% of the case group exhibited IFs in soft tissues (Table 2).  
Maxilla presented significantly more IFs than the mandible in the overall sample (\(t\)-test, \(p\) = 0.006, Table 6) and the case group (\(t\)-test, \(p\) < 0.001, Table 6). No significant difference was observed in the control group (\(t\)-test, \(p\) = 0.766, Table 6). For the case group, the prevalence of IFs was estimated at 92.5% in the maxilla, most of which presented three IFs (27.5%), and 63.2% in the mandible, which most commonly (34.2%) had two IFs. IFs in the maxilla were present at 60% and in the mandible at 48.3% of the total sample (Table 2).