Editor's Summary, Q & A, Reviewer's Critique: Dental and skeletal changes associated with Class II surgical-orthodontic treatment

Abstract

Introduction Few published reports detail the dental changes produced by orthodontic treatment in conjunction with orthognathic surgery. Methods Thirty-four Class II subjects who underwent surgical-orthodontic treatment with mandibular advancement and rigid fixation were selected, and their lateral cephalograms were digitized. Mean skeletal and dental values were calculated for pretreatment, presurgical, and final treatment times. Treatment efficacy as a percentage of an ideal goal achieved also was calculated. Results All data showed significant positive changes in the position of the mandible. The mean changes showed that the maxillary incisors were overretracted presurgically and then returned to a normal position postsurgically, whereas the mandibular incisors were proclined and protruded presurgically and remained so at posttreatment. The efficacy data showed that the incisors were not ideally decompensated in many patients. Conclusions The efficacy data show that presurgical orthodontic treatment often does not fully decompensate the incisors; this then limits the surgical outcome. Few published reports detail the dental changes produced by orthodontic treatment in conjunction with orthognathic surgery. Thirty-four Class II subjects who underwent surgical-orthodontic treatment with mandibular advancement and rigid fixation were selected, and their lateral cephalograms were digitized. Mean skeletal and dental values were calculated for pretreatment, presurgical, and final treatment times. Treatment efficacy as a percentage of an ideal goal achieved also was calculated. All data showed significant positive changes in the position of the mandible. The mean changes showed that the maxillary incisors were overretracted presurgically and then returned to a normal position postsurgically, whereas the mandibular incisors were proclined and protruded presurgically and remained so at posttreatment. The efficacy data showed that the incisors were not ideally decompensated in many patients. The efficacy data show that presurgical orthodontic treatment often does not fully decompensate the incisors; this then limits the surgical outcome.