REVIEW OF NASAL CHANGES WITH MAXILLARY ORTHOGNATHIC SURGERY

This article reviews the literature on nasal changeswith maxillary orthognathic surgery. Understanding suchchanges is vital for surgical planning and for obtainingappropriate informed consent, and there are medico-legalimplications. During orthognathic surgical planning aprediction of the effects of the different surgical movementsis possible and this forms part of the basis of the planningstage. The predicted changes need to be identified and theirdesirability or not for each individual patient determined.Some techniques for managing undesirable nasal changesare discussed, including adjunct measures to minimizethese potential effects (e.g. cinch sutures), and additionalsurgical procedures to manage the undesired nasal changesonce they are produced.