These types of surgeries are used to slowly move the face in a certain direction, usually forward.
They rely on making cuts in the bone and placing devices, known as distractors, on the bone segments.
The distractors are turned daily to twice daily to move the bone forward.
One advantage of this technique is that the soft tissues over the bone are stretched slowly over time.
If the soft tissues are right, or the amount of movement that needs to occur is large, then distraction is often a better option as compared to a single surgery that moves the bones forward.