Patient’s and Clinician’s perception of facial esthetic improvement as determinant of successful orthosurgical treatment

Abstract EN

The purpose of this study was to compare patients’ and clinicians’ perception of facial esthetic improvement after orthognathic surgery.

22 adult females who underwent orthosurgical correction of certain dentofacial deformitywere randomly selected with an average age of 24 years.

Pretreatment and post-treatment set of good quality and standardized colored photographs (7 photographs for each patient) were collected and displayed in separate folders for evaluation.

Structured open-ended questions were answered by evaluators and rated their perception on a percentage scale.

Linear multiple regression analysis showed significant differences between patients’ and clinicians’ satisfaction with the orthosurgical outcome.

There was a lower correlation between the patients’ selfratings and that of the same patients by the orthodontist and the maxillofacial surgeon.

The results indicated that the patients were not significantly impressed despite the esthetic improvement and due to relatively high cost of the orthosurgical procedures.

Overall patients’ satisfaction rating was significantly lower than orthodontists (r = -0.07, p = 0.77) and maxillofacial surgeon (r = 0.07, p = 0.76).

On the other hand, both orthodontist and maxillofacial surgeon had moderate significant association (r = 0.54, p = 0.009).

Maxillofacial surgeons rated significantly higher than the orthodontist on the scale and much higher than the patients’ ratings.