Introduction: Orthognathic surgery is a recognised surgical procedure to correct dentofacial deformities. Common practice among most maxillofacial practitioners is to treat genial problems simultaneously during orthognathic surgery while deferring or not treating nasal deformities. We investigate the prevalence of nasal deformities in such patients and present our findings on performing rhinoplasty simultaneously with orthognathic surgery.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed between 2002 and 2010 on 80 patients with dentofacial discrepancies to identify the proportion of inherent nasal deformities. Pre-orthodontic cephalometric radiographs were analysed. Patient’s nasal deformities were classified according to their nasal subunits and analysed. Statistical analysis was performed for differences in proportion.

Results: 46 patients had mild to prominent nasal cosmetic deformities. 14 patients had genial deformities and were treated with a genioplasty. 22 patients underwent simultaneous orthognathic and nasal surgery. Of these 22 patients, 94% were in favour of having both surgeries together. 16% of the patient group would consider separate nasal surgery if it was not done at the time of the osteotomy. All the patients expressed that they were satisfied with their postoperative results. None of the patients suffered any aesthetic or functional complications from the rhinoplasty.

Conclusions: 61.3% of our patient group who were treated for dentofacial deformities presented with nasal deformities while only 18.7% of the patients had genial problems. We propose simultaneous correction of orthognathic and nasal deformities to achieve a pleasing profile. Benefits include a single planning procedure, general anaesthesia, operation and less postoperative discomfort due to infraorbital hypoaesthesia.

Conflict of interest: None declared.