The alar base cinch: a technique for prevention of alar base flaring secondary to maxillary surgery.

The changes in external nasal morphology or nasal esthetics which accompany total maxillary surgery are often favorable. However, select patients who would otherwise benefit optimally from total maxillary surgery experience worsening of nasal esthetics secondary to the surgery. In our experience, this is primarily due to widening of the alar bases. The purpose of the present article is to identify those persons who will undergo undesirable nasal esthetic changes with total maxillary surgery and recommend a method of avoiding these changes.