Patient in whom surgery was selected to improve mandible position after changing doctors.

A patient who visited our department after job relocation was reexamined, and a marked discrepancy was found in mandibular position between centric occlusion and centric relation. Although the patient was originally scheduled to undergo orthodontic treatment only, the results of comprehensive tests indicated that surgery would be needed to resolve this discrepancy. Surgery was performed with the patient's consent, yielding favorable results. Although the entire orthodontic treatment lasted 3 years and 11 months, including treatment prior to transfer, it was clear that long-term use of intermaxillary elastics would not have corrected the discrepancy and that surgery was the right decision.