Sir, we believe that access to the chin point to allow genioplasty is facilitated by having the patient's teeth in occlusion, which relaxes the soft tissues. When genioplasty is performed as part of orthognathic surgery, the fixed appliances can be used to place intermaxillary fixation (IMF). However, when performed as an isolated procedure, the orthodontic brackets may not be in place and the teeth can be handheld in occlusion, or IMF applied conventionally using interdental eyelet wires and IMF. Although previous work using the Rapid IMFâ„¢ system has been on patients with maxillofacial trauma,1 we have found that using Rapid IMFâ„¢ in such cases is easy, quick, avoids the potential for needle-stick injury and allows for adequate relaxation of the facial soft tissues to allow good access to the chin (Fig. 1); therefore, this versatile system has applications during certain orthognathic procedures.

Figure 1: An intraoperative photograph of a genioplasty, showing use of the Rapid IMFâ„¢* system for temporary IMF
figure 1

*Rapid IMFâ„¢; Synthes CMF, 1302 Wrights Lane East, West Chester, PA 19380, USA.

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