The Surgery-First Orthognathic Approach

Book excerpt: This book is a comprehensive guide to the surgery-first orthognathic approach for patients with malocclusion and skeletal disharmony, which has been successfully applied by the authors in their practices over the past 15 years. The approach breaks with the time-tested principles of traditional orthognathic surgery in that corrective bone surgery is performed first, without the removal of dental compensations, followed by orthodontic finishing. All aspects are covered with the aid of numerous illustrations, the aim being to provide surgeons with a systematic educational tool that will enable them to introduce the approach into their own practice. In addition, the book addresses one of the hot issues in orthodontics, occlusal plane-altering orthognathic surgery, in which surgical modification of the occlusal plane is employed to treat various types of dentofacial deformity and improve facial proportions. This promises to become a very powerful tool in modern orthognathic surgery.