Patient's Satisfaction in Skeletal Class III Cases Treated With Two-Jaw Surgery Using Orthognathic Quality of Life Questionnaire: Conventional Three-Stage Method Versus Surgery-First Approach

Objective:To compare the quality of life (QoL) of Class III patients between conventional three-stage method (CTM) and surgery-first approach (SFA) using Orthognathic QoL Questionnaire (OQLQ).Materials and Methods:The subjects consisted of 26 Class III patients treated with nonextraction and two-jaw surgery. They were divided into CTM group (N=15) and SFA group (N=11). They retrospectively rated the OQLQ scores of 4 domains (social relationship, facial esthetics, function, and awareness of dentofacial deformity) using 0 to 4 scale at initial (T0), just before surgery (T1), 3 month after surgery (T2), and at debonding (T3). Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were performed for statistical analysis.Results:After total OQLQ score of CTM group was deteriorated at T1 stage compared with T0 stage, it was improved at T2 and T3 stages (T0=53.9, T1=58.1, T2=23.5, and T3=11.6). Total OQLQ score of SFA group, however, was improved at T2 and T3 stages compared with T0 stage (T0=51.6, T2=23.1, and T3=11.4; T1 was omitted.). Orthognathic QoL Questionnaire scores and their amounts of change did not show any significant difference in each domain and at each stage between 2 groups (T0, T2, T3, T2-T0, T3-T2, T3-T0; all P>0.05). Both groups showed large change in effect size (ES) of all domains with descending order during T3-T0: facial esthetics, oral function, social relationship, and awareness of dentofacial deformity (CTM group: -3.97, -3.40, -2.23, -1.25; SFA group: -2.83, -2.33, -1.76, -1.73)Conclusions:SFA might have an advantage over CTM group in terms of no deterioration stage of OQLQ score.