Analysis of masseter and temporal muscles during surgical extraction of impacted third molars.

With the aim of contributing to the discussion on stomatognathic system dysfunction after surgical procedures, this study compared the electromyographic activity of the superficial masseter and temporal masticatory muscles before, during, and after impacted mandibular third molar extractions. Muscular activity was recorded presurgery, transsurgery, immediately postoperatively, and on postoperative days 7, 15, and 30. Twenty patients requiring extraction of impacted mandibular third molars were selected and evaluated. In 20 patients who underwent mandibular third molar extractions, electromyography showed no alterations in muscle tone, and no statistically significant differences were observed in the left and right temporal and masseter muscles at any of the experimental periods at either mandibular rest or isometric contraction position. However, the degree of mouth opening increased 11.76% from pretreatment to 30 days after surgery. These results may reflect the shorter, careful extraction procedure performed by the surgeon.

Excision of an atypical case of palatal bone exostosis: a case report.

Bone exostosis has long been described in the literature, appearing in most cases as a torus palatinus or mandibularis. These two variations are relatively common and affect approximately 30% of the world's population. Incidence is even higher when human skulls are examined post mortem, indicating that in some cases the exostosis is small and cannot be seen under the soft tissue. Removal of an exostosis is usually associated with the construction of a prothesis, but in rare cases such as the present, the lesion enlarges enough to affect speech and feeding. Few studies have reported the removal of such a large exostosis, and all were conducted in a hospital environment. In this case, complete removal was successfully conducted in an ambulatory clinic under local anesthesia.