Anterior mandibular apical base augmentation in the surgical orthodontic treatment of mandibular retrusion

The authors describe a surgical technique alternative to traditional pre-surgical orthodontics in order to increase the apical base in mandibular retrusion (class II, division I). This subapical osteotomy, optimizing inferior incisal axis without dental extractions and a long orthodontic treatment, associated to genioplasty permits to obtain an ideal labio-dento-mental morphology. This procedure avoids in some cases the need of a mandibular advancement and, if necessary, it reduces his entity with obvious advantages.(copyright) 2005 International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.