New parameter for the evaluation of disgnathic patient's surgical planning: a preliminary report.

BACKGROUND: Indications for treatment of patients with maxillo-mandibular malformations have to be researched both in the severity of anatomical alteration affecting the face and psychological outcomes. Indeed, it has been underlined that patients decide to undergo orthodontic and orthognathic procedure mainly for aesthetical issues. Moreover the early combined functional and surgical treatment improves relationship skills in young adults. Dealing with these "aesthetic" features pre surgical planning presents some additional challenges. Even if orthognatic surgery aims to the correct repositioning of skeletal bases but we must achieve complete patient satisfaction. AIM: The Authors present a new parameter to be considered in the planning of patients who undergo orthognatic procedure being the restitution of the face the patient would have had without any pathologic mechanism with respect of the aesthetic features of the family. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Authors identified a series of parameters discussed by Arnett et al and performed a clinical and photographic evaluation of these parameters, in latero-lateral view, directly on the relatives of the patients. A cephalometric analysis, was performed and a series of parameters has been taken into account. CONCLUSIONS: It is very difficult to standardize universal parameters acceptable and applicable for every single case, considering that patient's awareness of the anatomical defect and post-surgical satisfaction don't relate to the correct cephalometric evaluation and the real aesthetic outcomes.

Proposal for a new self-compiled questionnaire in patients affected by temporo-mandibular joint disorders (TMD).

In this work, we propose a self-compiled questionnaire, for those patients showing dysfunctions of the temporomandibular joint. The questionnaire, composed by 33 closed multiple-choice questions, represents one of the steps in the diagnostic procedure, together with the clinical notes compiled by the medical specialist and with the other necessary diagnostic researches. It also has the purpose to make easier anamnesis and clinic procedure and gathering of all informations useful for a right clinical diagnosis, and so for an appropriate therapy.

Anatomic relationship between trigeminal nerve and temporomandibular joint.

Temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) is a collective term used to describe pathologic conditions involving temporomandibular joint (TMJ), masticatory muscles and associated structures. Common related complaints include local pain, limited mouth opening and TMJ noises whereas symptoms often associated to TMD with debated pathogenesis enclose earache, headaches, tinnitus and trigeminal-like symptoms such as atypical orofacial pain. In particular, TMD trigeminal associated symptoms are intricate, difficult to treat and exert a great impact on everyday life of the patients thus invoking a complex multidisciplinary treatment. In this paper, the authors analyze the anatomic and topographic relationships between the mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve and the medial aspect of the TMJ capsule in 8 fresh adult cadavers thus resuming a pathologic relationship between atypical trigeminal symptoms and TMD.