Analysis of soft tissue changes after genioplasty in skeletal class III dentofacial deformity

The purpose of this study was to measure the anteroinferior changes and the degree of vertical changes to facilitate the prediction of treatment outcome in patients undergoing genioplasty only, genioplasty with bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy (BSSRO), genioplasty, or BSSRO and Lefort I osteotomy. Serial cephalometry was performed on 25 patients at 1-year follow-up after genioplasty, to assess skeletal changes and relapse. Surgery was performed using conventional techniques. The mean ratio was 0.9:1 of soft tissue to skeletal movement at pogonion, but the average difference between hard and soft tissue was large; thus, the prediction of anteroposterior soft tissue changes was quite inaccurate. We observed a good correlation between the amount of hard versus soft tissue change with surgery in the horizontal direction, but a poor correlation in the vertical plane.