Retrospective investigation of pharyngeal airway change in skeletal class III patients treated with orthognatic surgery

The aim of this study is to determine the change of pharyngeal airway dimensions in skeletal class III cases treated with different orthognathic surgical techniques.82 class III adult cases were included in the study. They were divided into three groups according to the applied surgical techniques. 28 cases were treated with bimaxillary surgery with maxillary impaction,27 cases were treated with bimaxillary surgery,27 cases were treated with single jaw (mandibular setback) surgery. The changes of skeletal features, airway dimensions, hyoid bone position and head-posture characteristics were investigated on the cephalometric radiographs taken before and after orthodontic treatment. When the amount of jaws movement carefully examined, the width and height of the nasopharynx and hyoid bone movement were seen significantly different in all groups. But the change of the cranicervical angles didn't make a difference between all groups. Key words: Farengeal airway; Class III orthognatic surgery; Hyoid bone; Head posture