Surgeon-Patient Communications

Abstract

Orthognathic surgical patients can potentially undergo major and dramatic changes in their appearances. Although these changes are intended to be positive, the patient’s perception of these changes must coincide with those of the surgeon. This is true in both a qualitative and quantitative sense. For purposes of this discussion, qualitative perceptions refer to directions of skeletal displacements, whereas quantitative perceptions refer to the magnitude of such displacements. The ability of the surgeon and the patient to communicate with one another must be present to establish the similarity and/or differences of these aesthetic perceptions. This, in turn, has obvious psychologic implications as it relates to the postoperative emotional adjustments of the patient.