Facial bone distraction osteogenesis for correction of malocclusion: a more than 70-year-old concept in craniofacial surgery.

Bone distraction has been used increasingly since McCarthy and associates showed in their clinical investigation new osseous formation in the elongated area while performing mandibular distraction in 1992. However, at the craniofacial skeletal level, the initial description of the classic technique of distraction osteogenesis should be credited to German craniofacial surgeons Rosenthal (for bone lengthening of the mandible in a microgenia patient around 1927) and Wassmund (for the clinical advancement of a maxilla in a patient with hypoplasia of the upper jaw in 1926). Both procedures are described, and their original schedules and cases are presented.