Short-term evaluation of nasal changes after maxillary surgery

Objective: To determine the nasal soft-tissue profile changes in skeletal Class III patients who underwent maxillary or bimaxillary orthognathic surgery. Materials and Method: This clinical retrospective study consists of 40 patients (19 male and 21 female) who had undergone orthognathic surgery. All patients received single jaw maxillary (9 patients) or bimaxillary surgery (31 patients). Standardized lateral cephalograms obtained before operation and at least 6 months after the operation were used. Twelve measurements (4 skeletal and 8 soft-tissue measurements) were made. The distributions of the variables were checked by Shapiro-Wilk test. Paired-samples t test was used for parametric data and Wilcoxon sign rank test for nonparametric data, to analyze the differences between pre- and postoperative measurements. Results: After orthognathic surgery, SNA and ANB increased; SNB decreased significantly. A significant reduction in nasofrontal angle, TH-Prn, and nasal tip projection and a significant increase in nasofacial angle were found. In addition, superior movement of the nasal tip was found, and as a result, the nasal hump decreased. The N-Sn/Pr ratio, nasal tip angle, and nasolabial angle did not show any significant changes. Conclusion: It can be concluded that more vertical nasal changes rather than sagittal nasal changes are observed after maxillary surgery.