Surgical Correction of Squared Mandibular Face

ABSTRACT

Many Oriental women have prominent mandibular angle and short chin, in other words, 'squared' mandibular face or 'boxy' face. That kind of face is considered to be unattractive and causes big cosmetic problems for those who want to have an ovoid or almond shaped face. A squared mandibular face often needs to be corrected by operative procedure. A reduction mandibular angleplasty by bony angle resection is one of the operative procedures, but it is not always an adequate method. The successful correction of squared mandibular face can be accomplished by horizontal facial reduction and/or vertical facial lengthening procedure. From March 1996 to March 2000, We had operated 117 patients. The patients were divided into 3 groups. Group I had prominent mandibular angle and/or massetric hypertrophy. Patients in this group were operated by reduction angleplasty with/without resection of masseter muscle. Group II had prominent mandibular angle, cheek and mandibular body. In this case, we applied reduction angleplasty, contouring of body, resection of buccal fat pad and/or masseter muscle. Group III had prominent mandibular angle with short face. We used methods used for group II and Le Fort I lengthening and genioplasty. Ancillary procedures were forehead lengthening and reduction maloplasty. Successful correction of squared mandibular face could be performed by accurate analysis of facial profile and reduction mandibular angleplasty with proper ancillary procedures for each group. The results were as follows 1) We obtained successful correction of squared mandibular face with multiple horizontal facial reduction procedures, which reduced anterior and posterior facial plane. 2) In case of short face, we made better mid-low facial balance with vertical facial lengthening and horizontal facial reduction.