RESUMO
Objective The main goals of orthognathic surgery are to achieve funetional occlusion and improve patient's profile.The unintended nasal change in association with anterior maxillary osteotomy is always a challenging.The purpose of this study was to improve the anterior maxillary segmental osteotomy resulting in less post-operative unintended nasal change.Methods Thirty-two patients with maxillary protrusion underwent modified anterior subapical maxillary osteotomy.The design of the modified approach was based on the anterior mandibular subapical osteotomy.The horizontal osteotomy connecting the vertical osteotomy lines on both right and left sides was performed inferior to the piriform aperture and 3 mm over the apex.The integrity of piriform aperture was maximally preserved.Lateral cephalograms,lateral and frontal photographs taken pre-and post-operatively were analyzed.All the patients were followed up for at least 6 months.Results All thirty-two patients were satisfied with esthetic outcome.The upper lip protrusions and tooth exposure improved significantly.Cephalometric and photograph analysis showed that the ratio of upper lip to maxillary ineisor retractionwas 0.64:1.00,and the nasolabial angle and philtrum length were significantly increased(P＜0.05)while vermilion length was decreased.The height of nasal tip and nasal width(alarbase to alarbase)were not significantly changed.Conclusion The modified anterior subapical maxillary osteotomy is a simple procedure leading to no significant postoperative nasal change.It provides a promising alternative in the treatment of maxillary protrusion.