Hard and Soft Tissue Relapse After Different Genioplasty Procedures: A Scoping Review

The chin is a crucial component of facial aesthetics, and 20% of craniofacial problems require repair of the chin size, shape, and position. Genioplasty is used to treat irregularities in all three planes of the chin. Specific hard and soft tissue relapses following various genioplasty techniques have not been adequately studied in the literature to date. The purpose of this scoping review was to investigate the stability of hard and soft tissue changes achieved by different genioplasty procedures, six months after the procedure. A literature search was performed on PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Wiley Online, Scopus, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Cochrane databases from January 1, 2011 to October 31, 2022. Prospective and retrospective cohorts, case-control studies, observational studies, and randomized control trials, with at least 10 patients, which were written in English and evaluated the stability of different genioplasty procedures, with a follow-up period of at least six months were included. The manual and electronic search yielded 523 articles, and after complete screening, seven articles were selected (five with advancement genioplasty and two with reduction genioplasty) that met the eligibility criteria for review. The patients undergoing reduction genioplasty had a mean age of 24.15 years, compared to 20.5 years for augmentation genioplasty. The average follow-up period was 18.64 months for augmentation genioplasty and 10.5 months for reduction genioplasty technique. The relapse was assessed at pogonion, and it was noted that the average surgical advancement at hard tissue pogonion was 7.04 mm with a relapse of 0.69 mm after six months post-treatment. The average vertical movement of the hard tissue pogonion was 1.8 mm with a relapse of 0.74 mm. The average reduction at hard tissue pogonion was 3.2 mm in the vertical direction with a relapse of 0.2 mm and 0.8 mm reduction in soft tissue pogonion with a relapse of 0.3 mm. The soft to hard tissue ratio mentioned in the different studies ranged from 0.89 to 0.97. Both reduction and augmentation genioplasty are stable and reliable for altering the chin position for aesthetic purposes. The recommended mode of fixation is rigid fixation.