Oral and maxillofacial surgery is a relatively broad term that comprises operations which are used to treat complicated dental issues as well as some medical disorders affecting the mouth, teeth, jawbones and the face. The range of operations varies from corrections of facial bone structure and jaws, traumas affecting the jaw and maxilla, complex dental operations that involve jawbones and facial bone structure, operations on oral mucosa, gum texture and tongue. Oral and maxillofacial operations are performed by surgeons who are specialists in their respective discipline and undertook approximately 6 years of additional training and education in addition to standard dental school. Thus, this enables the oral and maxillofacial surgeons to effectively treat much complicated issues than the standard dentistry, varying from aesthetic corrections to cancerous tumor removal. To explain in brief and provide a reasonable summary, oral and maxillofacial surgery encompasses the procedures performed on your teeth, gums, jaw, or adjacent oral and facial tissues.
Generally, the issues that need to be corrected/ treated by an oral and maxillofacial surgery are diagnosed by a dentist. Those issues vary from minor dental operations such as removal of decayed teeth or impacted wisdom tooth to more serious and complicated issues such as cancers of the jaw and neck, alignation of the jawbones or reconstructive surgeries regarding the maxilla (a major bone that forms most of the frontal skull and upper jaw). After being diagnosed in the general dental examination, a consultation from the oral and maxillofacial surgeon of respected discipline are needed to plan the treatment and its extent. Depending on the scope of the surgery, some preparative processes and examination of various medical suitabilities might need to be performed. The operation might need general as well as local anesthesia or require an advanced setting like an operating room of a hospital.
One of the most frequent and extensively practiced type of oral surgery is tooth extraction. Tooth extraction surgeries are generally operated on incidents of impacted tooth (generally on third molars aka wisdom tooth), tooth decay, erupted tooth, unfallen primary (milk) tooth and fractures on the root of the tooth.
Having the smoothest procedures amongst all the oral and maxillofacial surgeries, tooth extraction is pain-free (by virtue of the local anesthesia) , and takes less than an hour. Usually there are not any expected complications, nevertheless the patient should follow the instructions of the surgeon for a smooth and painless recovery.
As a prevalent and reliable way to replace a missing tooth, dental implants necessitates oral surgery for their placement into the jawbone. During the procedure, titanium screw (or screws) of the dental implants are surgically implanted into the jawbone.
With regard to the specific situation of the patient, dental crowns can be placed in the same day, or a recovery period up to 6 months might be needed for the implant to integrate with the jawbone. Additional procedures might be needed depending on the situation of the bone structure such as bone grafting or sinus lifting. Dental implants cannot be completely covered in this page. By visiting the dedicated treatment page, you can learn more about dental implants.
Oral and maxillofacial surgery might be needed for cancer treatments, especially cancers of the head, neck, throat (oropharynx), mouth, salivary gland, larynx (voice box), sinus and lips. An oral and maxillofacial surgeon might need to operate on the above-mentioned areas for the removal of the cancerous tissue, cysts and tumors.
Maxillofacial reconstructive surgery might be performed for both aesthetic and functional reasons, due to trauma that has affected the patients mouth. The facial trauma reconstruction is often needed in cases where the patient has damaged their complex boney or soft tissues on their face.
Jaw joint issues or in medical terms, Temporomandibular Joint Disorders happen for a variety of reasons and results in the patient having discomfort on the face or the specific area that the TMJ is located, often resulting in the locking of jaws and discomfort in chewing. TMD is a large topic that cannot be covered on this particular page. To read more about the condition and learn what can be done about it, visit our dedicated page for jaw joint issues
Cleft lip is a rare condition that occurs during early fetal development when the upper lip of the fetus fails to separate from the roof of the mouth, which leads to a permanent deformation on the mouth, both aesthetically and functionally detrimental to the affected person. The only solution is a cleft lip and palate surgery which our clinic offers. The entirety of the operation cannot be covered in depth here. To read more, visit our dedicated page for cleft lip and palate surgery
A variety of cosmetic operations can be performed on both the mouth and and the areas considered under the expertise of maxillofacial surgeons. These often include face lifting (both cosmetic and traditional), eyelid surgery, chin and ear surgery, necklift, browlifting and botox
Overbite and underbite are issues relating to the placement of the jaws that can happen due to both chewing habits as an infant or teen and genetical factors, overbite and underbite patients jaws that are respectively displaced further than they are supposed to, which leads to both aesthetical and functional problems, namely locking of jaws and/or discomfort during chewing on food.
Bone grafting is the process of thickening and strengthening an existing bone, usually for various tasks such as creating a strong base for a dental implant. For the bone grafting process, bone bodies are imported from different parts of the patients bones such as the hips, legs or ribs and and grafted onto the bone that needs supplement with material to encourage the regeneration of bones in the area.
To read more about bone grafting and sinus lifting, visit our page dedicated to bone grafting and sinus lifting
Sinus lifting, just like bone grafting is most commonly preferred by patients as a pre-surgery operation for their dental implants. Sinus lifting, also known as sinus augmentation is the process of pushing the sinus tissue further into the sinus cavity most commonly in order to prevent complications arising from the patients dental implant surgery.
The surgery is comprised of opening an incision on the gum surface to expose the jawbone, then creating a small hole on it in order to reach the sinus membrane and gently pushing in further into its cavity. The created hole is then filled with bone grafting material for the cavity to healthily close via its infusion with the surrounding jawbone.
To read more about bone grafting and sinus lifting, visit our page dedicated to bone grafting and sinus lifting.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSP) and Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS) accounts for most of the dental health related sleep and breathing disorders/issues. The persons posterior part of the tongue falls back due to structural issues that may be considered under the scope of dental health, and their airway becomes effectively blocked, often leading to heavy snoring. The issue may even cause the person to transition from a deeper state of sleep to a lighter one.