The Technology... Osteoplastic Surgery and Distraction Osteogenesis Osteoplastic surgery, to form and mold bone, is the medical process of generating new bone and soft tissue growth to correct both congenital and acquired deformities and tissue deficiencies. The mechanism for controlled new growth is called distraction osteogenesis, or “DO.” Deformities of the face, the spine, and the extremities are not only disfiguring, they are debilitating—robbing those afflicted of their independence, their productivity and life potential. Many, if not most, of the afflicted are children. In recent years, clinical researchers have developed the means, using rather crude devices, to employ DO to distract bones of the face, skull, jaws and extremities to correct these deformities at the structural (skeletal) level. OrthoNetx has now developed sophisticated devices that will treat these difficult conditions with far less pain and suffering, more economically, and with better results. Distraction osteogenesis can be thought of as creating a new “growth center” in the body that literally causes, by mechanical means, the generation of new bone and also the skin, muscle, blood vessels and nerves that surround the bony “growth center.” Thus, distraction osteogenesis is a process that requires time and rather intense physician-patient involvement and cooperation, as in any tissue reconstruction commonly performed by orthopedic surgeons, plastic surgeons, ENT surgeons, and oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Clinically, with the right device, almost any bone in the body should be amenable to distraction osteogenesis. OrthoNetx devices have been successfully used to lengthen jaws, tooth-bearing bone, arms and legs. Variations of the DO process can also be used to correct angulation of bone when necessary.