In-House 3D-Printed Surgical Guides with a Minimally Invasive Design for Asymmetric Mentoplasty: A Case Series

TL;DR

This paper presents a case series using 3D-printed surgical guides for asymmetric chin surgery, showing accurate results with a low-cost, in-house workflow.

Contribution

A novel in-house digital workflow for creating 3D-printed surgical guides for asymmetric mentoplasty is proposed and tested clinically.

Findings

Postoperative analysis showed good agreement between planned and actual chin positioning in three cases.

Customized guides enabled accurate osteotomy and positioning with no major complications.

Low material consumption allowed rapid and cost-effective in-house guide fabrication.

Abstract

Background: Mentoplasty plays a central role in facial harmony, particularly in the correction of chin asymmetries. Advances in digital planning and three-dimensional (3D) printing have enabled the development of patient-specific surgical guides; however, their clinical implementation in public healthcare settings remains limited by workflow complexity and accessibility. Methods: This case series describes three patients who underwent asymmetric mentoplasty using customized, in-house-manufactured 3D-printed cutting and positioning guides. Virtual surgical planning was performed using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) data, followed by guide design and fabrication through an in-house digital workflow. Postoperative CBCT was used for descriptive assessment of the correspondence between planned and achieved chin positions using predefined linear reference points. Results: Across the three cases, postoperative CBCT analysis demonstrated encouraging agreement between virtual planning and achieved surgical outcomes. The customized guides facilitated accurate transfer of the planned osteotomy and chin positioning in both symmetric and asymmetric movements. No major intraoperative or postoperative complications were observed. Guide fabrication required low material consumption, enabling rapid in-house production with minimal direct material cost. Conclusions: Within the limitations of a small case series, the proposed in-house digital workflow demonstrated technical feasibility and encouraging agreement between planned and achieved chin positioning in selected asymmetric mentoplasty cases. Further studies with larger samples and standardized accuracy assessment methods are required to confirm these preliminary observations.

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