A systematic review on soft-to-hard tissue ratios in orthognathic surgery part II: Chin procedures

Precise soft-to-hard tissue ratios in orthofacial chin procedures are not well established. The aim of this study was to determine useful soft-to-hard tissue ratios for planning the magnitude of sliding genioplasty (chin osteotomy), osseous chin recontouring and alloplastic chin augmentation.

A systematic review of English and non-English articles using PubMed central, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Science Citation Index, Elsevier Science Direct Complete, Highwire Press, Springer Standard Collection, SAGE premier 2011, DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals, Sweetswise, Free E-Journals, Ovid Lippincott Williams & Wilkins total Access Collection, Wiley Online Library Journals, and Cochrane Plus databases from their onset until July 2014. Additional studies were identified by searching the references. Search terms included soft tissue, ratios, genioplasty, mentoplasty, chin, genial AND advancement, augmentation, setback, retrusion, impaction, reduction, vertical deficit, widening, narrowing, and expansion. Study selection criteria were as follows: only academic publications; human patients; no reviews; systematic reviews or meta-analyses; no cadavers; no syndromic patients; no pathology at the chin or mandible region; only articles of level of evidence from I to IV; number of patients must be cited in the articles; hard-to-soft tissue ratios must be cited in the articles or at least are able to be calculated with the quantitative data available in the article; if all patients of one article have had bilateral sagittal split osteotomy (BSSO) performed along with chin osteotomy, there should be an independent group evaluation of the data concerning to the chin; and no restriction regarding the size of the group. Independent extraction of articles by two authors using predefined data fields, including study quality indicators (level of evidence).

The search identified 22 articles. Eleven additional articles were found in their reference sections. Of these, two were evidence level IIIb, three were evidence level IIb, and the rest were evidence level IV. Three studies were prospective in nature. A high variability of soft-to-hard tissue ratios regarding genioplasty seemed to disappear if data were stratified according to confounding factors. With the available data, a soft-to-hard pogonion ratio of 0.9:1 and 0.55:1 could be used for chin advancement and chin setback surgery, respectively.

Advancement and extrusion movements of the chin segment show respectively a 0.9:1 of sPg:Pg horizontally and 0.95:1 of sMe:Me vertically. Setback and impaction movements show respectively a -0.52:1 of sPg:Pg horizontally and -0.43:1 of sMe:Me vertically. Prospective studies are needed that stratify by confounding factors such as type of osteotomy technique, magnitude of the movement, age, sex, race/ethnicity, and quantity and quality of the soft tissues. More specifically, studies are needed regarding soft-to-hard tissue changes after chin extrusion ("downgrafting"), intrusion ("impaction"), and widening and narrowing surgery.