Background : The long face syndrome is considered a particular dentofacial deformity characterized by an increase of anterior facial height generally associated to retrognathia. This condition involves a severe functional compromise and constitutes a great challenge for the treatment. Its pathogenesis is poorly understood and there are few long-term reports of this particular entity. The analyze of clinical and morphological features seems to be an essential step in order to refine the indication of surgical techniques.

Materials and methods : This retrospective case series include 35 adults, 30 females and 5 males, with a diagnosis of long faces syndrome associated to skeletal class II who underwent orthodontic-surgical treatment between 1994 and 2011. All cases were treated by surgical maxilla-mandibular counter clockwise-rotation and genioplasty. Lateral cephalogram of all patients before and after surgery were obtained, and Delaire cephalometric analysis was conducted for all. The indexes of craniofacial structures were analyzed and compared between pre and post-surgical procedure.

Conclusions : Were achieved postoperative radiographic checks in different periods, ranging from 5 to 17 years of evolution. Significant improvement of vertical and sagittal structural balance of the craniofacial complex was observed after treatment.

Key words : class II; orthognathic surgery