Changes in patient-reported chief complaints with orthognathic surgery: a prospective cohort study

TL;DR

This study tracks how patient-reported complaints like dental function and aesthetics change before and after orthognathic surgery.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into how patient-reported chief complaints evolve during orthognathic surgery treatment.

Findings

Dental function, facial aesthetics, and dental aesthetics were the most common complaints before treatment.

All ten subcategories of complaints showed significant improvement after surgery.

Patient-reported outcomes improved significantly from before treatment to 6–9 months post-surgery.

Abstract

There is a lack of studies on patient-reported outcomes in orthodontics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in patient-reported chief complaints during orthognathic surgery treatment.

Patients undergoing orthognathic surgery at the University Hospital Münster between 2019 and 2023 were eligible for inclusion in this prospective cohort study. Patient-reported chief complaints were recorded on visual analogue scale (VAS) forms before treatment (\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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A total of 217 out of 386 recruited patients (56%) completed all study assessments and were included in the final analysis (female/male = 126/91, median age 24.1 years). Dental function, facial aesthetics, and dental aesthetics were the most frequently reported complaints at \documentclass[12pt]{minimal}
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Orthognathic surgery patients most frequently report dental function, facial aesthetics, and dental aesthetics as their chief complaints, and these complaints were improved significantly after treatment.

The improvement in patient-reported chief complaints can be used to inform patients prior to treatment.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40510-025-00572-4.

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