Abstract
A few case reports on the mandibular surgical lengthening therapy by McCarthy et al., Takato et al. and Kawakami et al. have been published in recent journals.
In this study, three females (4 years and 8 months, 6 years and 2 months, and 12 years and 10 months), who underwent mandibular surgical lengthening, were analyzed with regard to their facial changes by means of photometry and cephalometry.
The results were as follows:
1) Mandibular surgical lengthening was effective on the patient with micromandible such as hemifacial microsomia within a short period.
2) The effects of this therapy were more prominent on the change of soft tissue than that of hard tissue.
3) After removing the lengthening appliance, a fair amount of relapse was noticed.
