Perceptions of facial profile and their influence on the decision to undergo orthognathic surgery

Eighty patients, who had previously been evaluated by an oral surgeon and an orthodontist as requiring orthognathic surgery, completed questionnaires rating their perceptions of their own profiles. Half of the patients had decided to undergo surgical correction of their jaw deformities, while the other half had decided against surgical treatment. In addition, booklets containing pretreatment photographs of all 80 patients were mailed to 37 oral surgeons, 46 orthodontists, and 43 lay persons. These three groups of evaluators rated the patients' profiles, using the same rating scales that the patients had used. Cephalometrically, the two patient groups were statistically the same in all skeletal and soft-tissue measures except for ANB (mean difference = 1.8 °) and soft-tissue AN-pogonion (mean difference = 2.4 °). Differences in these dimensions were considered in subsequent data analyses. Results of this study support the following conclusions: (1) In spite of the fact that surgical treatment may be recommended by dental specialists and indicated by cephalometric measurements, self-perceptions of profile are more important in the patient's decision to elect surgical correction; (2) the perception by others that the profiles of patients deciding against surgery are closer to ideal may have some influence on their decision against surgical correction of their jaw deformities; (3) oral surgeons and orthodontists evaluate facial profiles similarly, but surgeons are more likely to recommend surgical correction; (4) lay persons are more likely to rate an individual's profile as being normal than are dental specialists in orthodontics and oral surgery; (5) in contrast, individuals perceive their own profiles differently than orthodontists, oral surgeons, and lay persons, particularly with respect to the mandibular and dentoalveolar dimensions.