Vertical Maxillary Deformities

Abstract

Vertical maxillary deformities were rarely recognized or treated before the early 1970’s. Their recognition is based on changing aesthetic mores and increasing sophistication of cephalometric analyses. Classical cephalometric analyses .Classical cepalometric analyses paid little attention to vertical facial changes. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, surgeons concentrated on mandibular deformities and, thus, most procedures were performed on the mandible even when the basic deformity was found in the maxilla. This was partially due to the difficulties inherent in maxillary surgery such as vascularization and subsequent difficulty in mobilizing the maxilla. Until the advent of more sophisticated anesthetic techniques, antibiotics, and the biologic studies of Bell, complete maxillary surgery was uncommon and fraught with relapse. Hogeman was one of the first to correct the vertical maxillary deformities, but it was not until the work of Bell, Epker, and Schendel that the techniques were popularized.