Osseous Genioplasty: Prevention of Witch's Chin Deformity with No-Degloving Technique

Osseous genioplasty is a powerful procedure that can correct chin dysmorphology; however, traditional techniques may result in chin ptosis or a "witch's chin" deformity. Iatrogenic chin ptosis is thought to be caused by excessive degloving of soft tissue with a failure to reattach the mentalis muscle. In the authors' study, they compared the "no-degloving" technique (using a 90-degree plate with lag-screw fixation) to the "traditional" technique, for minimization of chin ptosis.

The authors compared genioplasty techniques for consecutive patients: group 1 (traditional) underwent degloving for fixation of a stair-step plate, whereas group 2 (no-degloving) underwent lag-screw fixation (n = 50; 25 patients per group). The authors compared operating room time, advancement, complications, preoperative-to-postoperative vertical height change of the pogonion and menton (obtained through cone beam computed tomographic scans), surgeons' assessment of witch's chin, and FACE-Q surveys.

No-degloving versus traditional groups had similar age and sex distributions, horizontal/vertical change (5 mm/2 mm versus 6 mm/2 mm), length of surgery, and complication rate (5 percent). The traditional group had more deviation from expected position for both the pogonion (3.4 mm versus 1.2 mm; p ≤ 0.05) and menton (2.9 mm versus 0.8 mm; p ≤ 0.05), and more occurrences of witch's chin (six versus zero). No-degloving was superior for several FACE-Q scales, including Chin Appearance, Quality of Life, Satisfaction with Decision to Undergo Procedure, and Satisfaction with Outcome.

No-degloving osseous genioplasty is a safe, reproducible technique that results in decreased soft-tissue ptosis and increased patient satisfaction.

Therapeutic, III.