The purpose of a Lefort III procedure is to move the cheekbones, lower part of the eye sockets, and upper jaw into a better position.
Surgeons start this surgery by making incisions on the top of the head and inside the mouth. They then cut and separate the bones in this part of the facial bones from the skull.
Surgeons can perform Lefort III with or without distraction osteogenesis.
When distractors are used, a device will be fixed to the outside of the head with pins and attached to the face by wires. This is called a “halo distractor."
Your team will teach you how to tighten the wires over time and slowly pull the facial bones forward. Once the bones are in a good position, the halo distractor remains in place for a few months until the bones heal.
When this surgery is performed without distraction, bone grafts will be used to fill the spaces that result from moving the facial bones forward.