Three-year stability of open-bite correction by 1-piece maxillary osteotomy.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this retrospective cephalometric study was to evaluate the long-term vertical stability of anterior open-bite correction by 1-piece Le Fort I osteotomy and rigid fixation.


METHODS
The sample comprised 40 consecutively treated patients from the files of the Department of Orthodontics, University of Oslo, Norway. All subjects had received a 1-piece Le Fort I osteotomy as the only surgical procedure from 1990 through 1998 and were followed for 3 years according to a protocol for data collection. Lateral cephalograms were obtained before surgery and at 5 occasions after surgery.


RESULTS
The mean open bite before surgery was 2.6 mm; at the 3-year follow-up, 35 patients had a positive overbite, and the remaining 5 patients had an open bite between 0.2 and 0.9 mm. Impaction of the posterior maxilla >or=2 mm relapsed on average by 31%, and inferior repositioning of the anterior maxilla >or=2 mm relapsed by 62%. Maxillary vertical skeletal changes during the postsurgery period were compensated for by orthodontic dentoalveolar adaptation. Most of the skeletal relapse occurred during the first 6 months after surgery and always in the direction opposite to the surgical movement. The relative contribution of mandibular and maxillary changes in anterior open-bite closure was approximately 3:1.


CONCLUSIONS
Surgical correction of anterior open bite was generally stable over a 3-year period, and skeletal relapse was counteracted by dentoalveolar compensation.
Espeland
Lisen
L
Department of Orthodontics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. lisene@odont.uio.no
Dowling
Paul A
PA
Mobarak
Karim A
KA
Stenvik
Arild
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000539:Alveolar Process / Q000473:pathology; D001860:Bone Plates; D002508:Cephalometry; D002680:Chin / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor / Q000473:pathology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008334:Mandible / Q000473:pathology; D008437:Maxilla / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009295:Nasal Bone / Q000473:pathology; D024343:Open Bite / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D019340:Osteotomy, Le Fort / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014716:Vertical Dimension