The common causes of maxillofacial injuries are road traffic accidents , assaults followed by pathologies. The congested roads of poor quality , increasing population and traffic and the poor driving sense of the people and illiteracy about traffic rules are all contributing factors to road traffic accidents .The prominency of the facial skeleton and the tendency to fall contribute to more injuries to this part of the body. The assault and fights along with sports injuries are also a common cause of the maxillofacial injuries.3rd contributing factor though not as common as others is pathologies.
The facial bones are very complex as a number of bones are linked with each other. So it is difficult that a single bone breaks without damaging its neighbouring one. The lower jaw bone is a u shaped and the impact on one side mostly leads to fracture of other side along with the site of impact. Another important thing is that the jaw and facial bones are associated with many features other than cosmetics as chewing, speaking. Hence while treating these injuries many things have to be kept in mind by a surgeon along with the proximity to brain as few danger areas can spread these infections directly to brain and with their associated meninges.
In older times the injuries of the maxillofacial region was not correctly diagnosed and treated sometimes being fatal. But with the advancement in dental surgery a special branch of dental surgery evolved which is known as oral and maxillofacial surgery. The injuries of this region leads a special expertise. A Surgeon dealing with these injuries should be well versed with this particular region and that is what is the expertise of an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon . The modern specialization makes this surgeon fully competent to treat and operate the patient.
Newer techniques for treating maxillofacial injuries In the previous times there were neither much knowledge about how to treat the maxillofacial injuries nor there were proper and competent armamentarium for operating .But the recent advancements in the maxillofacial regions in terms of newer techniques and newer plates for fixation the injuries are managed with much more ease and confidence by the maxillofacial surgeons.
3D plates are the titanium plates which need less plates and screws to fix and less pre contouring. The facial fractures are now a days reduced perfectly and semi rigid fixation is done .The advantage of semi rigid fixation by these titanium plates is that the patient can return to work immediately and all his/her function are restored to normal and there is no need of prolonged maxilla mandibular ligation. These plates are very light in weight but equally strong and they are very less palpable. Hence form , function , & esthetics are efficiently restored at the same time giving a lot of confidence to patient as well as the treating maxillofacial surgeon.
So the main stay of treatment depends upon the choice of the operating Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon and his experience and expertise in this field of surgery comes into play. So the facial injuries are nearly totally curable to a large extent now a days. Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon should be consulted immediately as and when the mishappening occours.
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Dr Ramandeep Arora, BDS; MDS (1), Consultant Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon
ramansingh6301@gmail.com
Phone No. : 7973164408
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