Purpose: The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the soft tissue changes after maxillary advancement in class III patients.
Methods: Pre- and post-operative lateral cephalometric radiographs of 20 patients treated with maxillary advancement surgery were included in our study. Skeletal, dental and soft tissue measurements were performed by a single researcher using Dolphin Imaging software version 11.95 (Dolphin Imaging, Chatsworth, CA, USA). Paired t test was used for statistical evaluation and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The amount of motion in soft tissues, respectively, are UL-E: 2.05 mm, ST.A: 0.65 mm, ST.B: - 5 mm, ST.Pog: - 5.73 mm, ST.Conv: - 3.95 mm, nasal prominence: - 1.58 mm, nasal height: 2.76 mm and upper lip length: 2.22 mm. The change of distance to horizontal and vertical reference planes are, respectively, Prn-HRL: 3.02 mm Prn-VRL: 1.76 mm Sn-HRL: 2.76 mm Sn-VRL: 2.94 mm ST.
A-hrl: 3.74 mm ST.
A-vrl: 3.81 mm UL-HL: 3.93 mm UL-VRL: 4.57 mm LL-HRL: 2.29 mm LL-VRL: 5.31 mm.
Conclusions: It can be concluded that soft tissues related to maxilla moved anteriorly due to maxillary advancement.
Keywords: Advancement; Class III treatment; Craniofacial anomalies; Osteotomy.