Chronic Facial Paralysis Treated With Non-absorbable APTOS Barbed Threads: A Case Report With Anatomic Considerations.

Chronic paralysis of the facial nerve leads to degenerative facial muscle and surrounding soft tissue alterations on the involved side, making the affected patients seem older than their actual age. Moreover, contralateral facial hypertrophy worsens facial asymmetry. Correction of the drooping or wrinkled face due to aging, trauma, or other pathology has been successfully treated with the thread-lifting technique. Here, we present the case report of a 23-year-old female patient suffering from oncologic post-surgery complications associated with chronic facial nerve paralysis. She also suffered from old and new cerebellar syndromes on the right side and lesions of the oculomotor, trochlear, and abducens nerves. Based on the patient history, the condition was treated under local anesthesia by the use of APTOS minimally invasive threads with barbs made from non-absorbable material. Correction and sculpting of the affected cheek area were performed by insertion of a light lift needle, and lifting of the superficial fat pads was secured by subdermal insertion of the light lift thread method. The jowl area was lifted by the superficial insertion of both types of threads. As a result, we significantly improved facial symmetry at rest, a more symmetric smile, a lifted corner of the mouth, and an anatomically sculpted cheek appearance.

Stem Cells and Their Derivatives-Implications for Alveolar Bone Regeneration: A Comprehensive Review.

Oral and craniofacial bone defects caused by congenital disease or trauma are widespread. In the case of severe alveolar bone defect, autologous bone grafting has been considered a "gold standard"; however, the procedure has several disadvantages, including limited supply, resorption, donor site morbidity, deformity, infection, and bone graft rejection. In the last few decades, bone tissue engineering combined with stem cell-based therapy may represent a possible alternative to current bone augmentation techniques. The number of studies investigating different cell-based bone tissue engineering methods to reconstruct alveolar bone damage is rapidly rising. As an interdisciplinary field, bone tissue engineering combines the use of osteogenic cells (stem cells/progenitor cells), bioactive molecules, and biocompatible scaffolds, whereas stem cells play a pivotal role. Therefore, our work highlights the osteogenic potential of various dental tissue-derived stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the progress in differentiation techniques of iPSCs into osteoprogenitor cells, and the efforts that have been made to fabricate the most suitable and biocompatible scaffold material with osteoinductive properties for successful bone graft generation. Moreover, we discuss the application of stem cell-derived exosomes as a compelling new form of "stem-cell free" therapy.