Combining Cosmetic Soft Tissue and Skeletal Surgeries to Achieve Greater Total Facial Harmony Than Either Surgery Could Alone

Abstract

Introduction:

Oral and maxillofacial surgeons have the capability, both technically and biologically, to greatly alter the faces of patients who exhibit facial deformities along with soft tissue defects. Not only can this specialty greatly improve disharmony in a patient's underlying facial bony skeleton, but it is in a preeminent position to treat cosmetic soft tissue defects, and therefore surgically alter both functional and cosmetic deficiencies for an aesthetic conclusion.

Materials and Methods:

Five patients with both cosmetic and functional problems are presented. Their problems are analyzed and treated. Specific comments are made regarding a number of cosmetic evaluations and techniques.

Results:

The surgical approach to treat a patient's facial soft tissue and bony defects, either concomitantly or via staged approaches, indicates a much greater range of surgical capabilities that attempts to correct a patient's total facial disharmony.

Discussion:

The contemporary oral and maxillofacial surgeon now has the educational capabilities and resources to treatment plan the entire face, from the underlying bone to the overlying soft tissues, and surgically execute those plans. The results can alter the facial region both cosmetically and functionally to a degree that heretofore was only a conceptual possibility.