Evaluation of facial aesthetics by laypersons in patients undergoing intraoral quadrangular Le Fort II osteotomy compared with conventional Le Fort I osteotomy.

In this study we compared the aesthetic outcome of (1) Le Fort I (LFI) osteotomy and (2) intraoral quadrangular Le Fort II (IQLFII) osteotomy for surgical correction of skeletal class III dysgnathia involving midfacial deficiency. The aim was to investigate whether laypersons see differences in facial changes that occur due to variations of the osteotomy cuts. The patient collectives consisted of 23 patients in each group. Pre- and postoperative photographs were presented in a random sequence to 40 layperson raters. The rating procedure was conducted with a four-point Likert scale. Assessed characteristics were 'attractiveness' ('Attraktivität'), 'likeability' ('Sympathie'), 'intelligence' ('Intelligenz'), 'aggressiveness' ('Aggressivität') and 'dominance' ('Dominanz'). For preoperative photographs we found a significant difference for 'likeability' with lower ratings for the IQLFII group; all other criteria were rated similarly. For the IQLFII group we found a significantly larger shift from lower to higher ratings for 'attractiveness' and 'likeability' and a significantly larger shift from higher to lower ratings for 'aggressiveness' and 'dominance' than for the LF I group. Our study shows that lay raters detect significant differences between the two surgical groups. Thus, IQLFII osteotomy, when indicated, represents a favourable alternative to conventional LFI osteotomy, if patients desire the expectable change in recognition by their social circle.

Facial Aesthetics in Young Adults after Cleft Lip and Palate Treatment over Five Decades.

Cleft Lip and Palate (CLP) - a common facial malformation in newborns - is typically corrected by surgical intervention to allow for normal speech development, psychosocial adjustment, and facial attractiveness. The long term treatment outcome can be evaluated after a number of years, possibly in adulthood. We investigated the aesthetics of the nasolabial region by subjective ratings. To compare various surgical approaches we recruited 12 raters to evaluate 429 patients. Expert and lay raters judged photographs from patients, who have completed treatment with one of three different surgical strategies performed in our institution over 50 years. Facial photographs were cropped, presented to the raters in a randomized sequence, and judged by the raters on a 5 point Likert scale. The subjective ratings between the raters revealed a fair to substantial inter-rater reliability. The average ratings of the surgical outcome improved continuously over the investigated 5 decades. Despite possible differences between raters and rater groups this overall result was consistently seen in the gender groups (male/female), or expertise related groups (expert/lay). Our analysis revealed that patients with bilateral CLP scored worse than patients with unilateral CLP when treated in the fifties; more recently treated patients of both groups scored similarly.