Long-term dentofacial stability after bimaxillary surgery in skeletal Class III open bite patients

The purpose of this study was to evaluate long-term dentofacial stability after bimaxillary surgery in skeletal Class III open bite patients. Twenty-three Japanese adults (5 males, 18 females) were randomly selected as the experimental group from the files of Tohoku University Dental Hospital according to the following criteria: (1) skeletal Class III malocclusion with anterior open bite, (2) simultaneous Le Fort I and sagittal split ramus osteotomies, and (3) complete set of cephalograms taken at predetermined intervals until 5 years after debonding. Based on the manner of maxillary surgical repositioning, they were divided into the following 2 groups: (1) impaction group of 13 subjects (2 males, 11 females) who had maxillary superior repositioning without rotation of the palatal plane, and (2) rotation group of 10 subjects (3 males, 7 females) who had maxillary repositioning with clockwise rotation of the palatal plane. These patients were compared to a control group of 11 adults (1 male, 10 females) with skeletal Class III malocclusion without open bite who underwent bimaxillary surgery by the same techniques. Our data showed that overbite stability in the rotation group was better than that in the impaction group. This suggests that clockwise rotation of the palatal plane, which moves the anterior maxillary structures down, is an effective way to produce a reasonably stable correction of the anterior open bite. In contrast, superior repositioning of the maxilla that significantly rotates the mandible in the closing direction should be applied with caution.