Abstract: PURPOSE: To investigate the treatment experience and information needs of patients with dentofacial deformities in the process of surgical program design, surgical treatment and postoperative rehabilitation. METHODS: Thirty-six patients with dentofacial deformities at different treatment stages from March to July 2019 were selected for semi-structured interview. Colaizzi content analysis method and QSR NVivo 12.0 software were used to analyze and code the data, as well as extract the theme and genus. RESULTS: Three themes and eight categories were extracted, including① information needs in different treatment stages, mainly specific content of information needs at pre-operative preparation stage, orthognathic perioperative stage and post-operative rehabilitation stage; ② information support methods, i.e., diversified information support methods and patients' recognition of internet information;③ patients' cognition difference,namely the difference between patients' psychological expectation and the results of operation. CONCLUSIONS: Due to the treatment characteristics of orthognathic surgery and individual cognitive differences of patients, there is a large demand for information support at different stages of treatment. However, the current information support mode is limited, so it is necessary to further improve and provide scientific, professional and targeted information support for patients with dentofacial deformities.

Key words: Dentofacial deformities, Treatment stages, Information needs, Qualitative research