Treatment Effect of Combined Surgical Maxillary Expansion and Mandibular Setback in Skeletal Class III

Abstract

The purpose of this case report is to describe and discuss a combined surgical and orthodontic technique for the management of transverse maxillary deficiency and mandibular prognathism in the treatment of skeletal Class III malocclusion in a mature patient. Skeletal Class III malocclusion can present with maxillary deficiency or retrognathism, mandibular excess or prognathism, or a combination. The maxillary arch is narrow and often requires expansion. A 25-year-old patient presented with a constricted maxilla, a skeletal Class III malocclusion with a large mandible, Angle's Class III malocclusion, retroclined lower incisors, proclined upper incisors, crowding of maxillary and mandibular teeth, and bilateral posterior crossbite. The case report shows that an adult patient with Class III malocclusion (constricted maxilla and large mandible) can be treated with rapid maxillary expansion accompanied by bilateral maxillary osteotomies, followed by a reduction bilateral sagittal split osteotomy (BSSO). As the patient was 25 years old with a bilateral crossbite, a surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion procedure was performed. As the diastema space was available at the end of expansion, it proved to be beneficial for the presurgical decompensation of Class III, thus creating a negative overjet, followed by which a BSSO setback was done.