The quality of life of people with jaw deformation, before and after an orthognathic operation

Introduction
The aim of the study was to assess the quality of life of people with jaw deformation, before and after an orthognathic operation.

Material and methods
: The research covered 40 randomly picked patients with jaw deformation before and after surgery in one Warsaw hospital. To evaluate the quality of life, the Polish version of the World Health Organisation Quality of Life questionnaire was used as well as an authorial questionnaire.

Results
Thanks to the treatment, the quality-of-life self-assessment (Z = –4.74; p < 0.001), self-assessment of health condition (Z = –3.72; p < 0.001), and the quality-of-life assessment (t[44] = –11.41; p < 0.001) all increased. The quality of life before the operation had an average of M = 84.96, with a standard deviation (SD) of 4.2, and by contrast, after the operation it was M = 93.82 and SD = 3.03. A significant decrease in symptoms was noticed – before the surgery, mostly food consuming difficulties were reported, as well as crooked smiles (57%). After the operation, the most commonly reported symptom was pain in the temporomandibular joint. We should pay special attention only to statistically important differences, which, if we examine closer the decreases in the mentioned symptoms, are cases of pain, difficulty in jaw movement, and micro injuries of the palate and tongue.

Conclusions
Unaesthetic appearance is the most common factor that urges patients to decide to undergo an orthognathic operation. Deformations in the teeth and skeletal system of the face cause discomfort in human functioning in various areas of life. Treating jaw deformation with surgery is a successful method of therapy. The quality of patients’ lives increased after the treatment.