Our experience with sagittal split osteotomy for retrognathia.

Twenty-six cases which had been operated upon for retrognathia are reviewed. Most of these patients were unmarried, young individuals, and the improvement in their self-image and appearance was the major benefit from the surgical procedure: a lesser number felt the improvement in their bite and function was more important. Relapse, weakness of the lower lip, and numbness of the lower lip were the 3 most common complications. They occurred with sufficient frequency to encourage us to find a surgical approach with less morbidity for this problem of skeletal asymmetry. Perhaps a "C" cut (as champion;ed by Hinds), a forward block of the mandible with cartilage (as described by Trauner), or a vertical cut of the ramus with the posterior fragment notched into the anterior fragment (Mehnert), would yield results with fewer undesirable effects.