Patient's Recognition of Improvement in Facial Profile due to Orthognathic Surgery.

This study was designed to investigate the patient's recognition of changes in facial profile due to orthognathic surgery. The results of questionnaires were summarized and analyzed in relation to cephalometric data.The subjects consisted of forty-three posttreatment patients (13 males and 30 females) with mandibular prognathism, , who had undergone orthognathic surgery at Hiroshima University Dental Hospital. In this study, patient's recognition of improvement in facial profile was summarized in relation to morphologic changes associated with orthognathic surgery by means of Spearman's correlation analysis.The results were as follows:1. Before treatment, eighty-eight percent of patients were anxious about disharmony of the facial profiles, and the degree of anxiousness was severe in half of them. As for facial areas, the lower lip and chin were their greatest concern.2. After treatment, eighty-four percent of patients recognized improvement in facial profile, and sixty-three percent of patients assessed that their profiles were improved more substantially than expected before treatment. As for facial parts, more than seventy percent of patients mainly recognized improvement in lower lip and chin.3. The patient's recognition of improvement in facial profile, especially chin, exhibited a significantly positive correlation with the amount of mandibular setback during treatment.These results suggested that most patients assessed that improvement in facial profile was achieved by orthognathic surgery. It is shown that their recognition of improvement in their facial profiles is significantly correlated with the amount of mandibular setback.