It has been reported that the changes of soft tissues do not coincide with the movement of hard tissues in two-jaw surgery. Although a few reports discussed the effect of orthognathic surgery on the nasal tip and upper lip region, little was mentioned about changes in the cheek line, and no quantitative analysis was performed.
In this study, the morphological changes of the soft tissue profile (mainly the cheek line)were examined in unilateral cleft lip and palate patients who had anterior reversed occlusion and who had undergone two-jaw surgery.
The subjects were 12 unilateral cleft lip and palate patients (8 females and 4 males) on whom orthognathic surgery was carried out at Niigata University Dental Hospital.
The subjects were divided into two groups:
1. Complete Le Fort I osteotomy group (t he whole maxilla)
2. Segmental Le Fort I osteotomy group (the minor segment only)
Preoperative and postoperative cephalograms were traced, and analyses of hard tissue, soft tissue, and the cheek line were done. On the cheek line,3 angular measurements were made: ∠C1, ∠C2, and ∠C3, in addition to the anteroposterior movement of the cheek line (C4, C5). ∠C1 is the angle made between the cheek line and a horizontal line located at the intermedi ate point between the FH plane and Pronasale. ∠C2 is the angle made between the cheek line and a horizontal line located below Subnasale.
The results were that, in both the complete and segmental maxillary osteotomy groups,
∠C1 tended to increase, while ∠C2 decreased, after two-jaw surgery.
In conclusion, the cheek line tends to become convex after t wo-jaw surgery in cleft lip and palate patients.
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