Type of maxillary segment mobilization affects three-dimensional nasal morphology

Surgical mobilization of the maxillary segment affects nasal morphology. This study assessed the impact of the type of maxillary mobilization on the three-dimensional (3D) nasal morphometry.

Pre- and postsurgery cone beam computed tomography-derived facial image datasets of consecutive patients who underwent two-jaw orthognathic surgery were reviewed. Using preoperative 3D facial models as the positional reference of the skeletal framework, 12-month postoperative 3D facial models were classified into four types of maxillary mobilizations (advancement [n = 83], setback [n = 24], intrusion [n = 55], and extrusion [n = 52]) and four types of final maxillary positions (anterosuperior [n = 44], anteroinferior [n = 39], posterosuperior [n = 11], and posteroinferior [n = 13]). Six 3D soft tissue nasal morphometric parameters were measured, with excellent intra- and interexaminer reliability scores (ICC>0.897) for all the measurements. The 3D nasal change for each nasal parameter was computed as the difference between postoperative and preoperative measurement values.

The intrusion maxillary mobilization resulted in a significantly (all p<0.05) larger 3D nasal change in terms of alar width, alar base width, and nostril angle parameters, and a smaller change in terms of the nasal tip height parameter than the extrusion maxillary mobilization; however, no significant (all p>0.05) difference was observed between advancement and setback maxillary mobilizations. The anterosuperior and posterosuperior maxillary positions had a significantly (all p<0.05) larger 3D nasal change in terms of the alar base width and nostril angle than the anteroinferior and posteroinferior maxillary positions.

The type of maxillary mobilization affects the 3D nasal morphometry.