Active and passive mouth opening exercises are a very common practice in oral and maxillofacial surgery especially for various conditions causing limited mouth opening like space infections, trauma, and ankylosis. But most of the practitioners do not follow basic principles while advocating these active mouth opening exercises and also take it for granted that it would benefit the patient in th...

The branch of Prosthodontics is not only a science but also an art of handling patients who present with limitations in continuing with normal procedures. An abnormally small mouth opening is called as microstomia. The common reasons for this condition include scleroderma, orofacial malignancies, surgery, burns and TMJ ankylosis. Impressions can be made for patients with restricted mouth openin...

OBJECTIVES hypermobility in Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) can manifest higher range of motions in mandible. The aim of this study was to compare the position and distances of the head of condyle to glenoid fossa in TMJs of healthy individuals and patients with mild, moderate and severe TMJ hypermobility. MATERIAL AND METHODS In this clinical study, 69 patients (between the ages of 22 to 42) w...

Functional separation of the lungs may be accomplished by several methods. Patient with restricted mouth opening has limited options for one-lung ventilation. We report the use of wire-guided endobronchial blockade, a new tool for achieving one-lung ventilation in a patient with restricted mouth opening requiring nasotracheal, fiberoptic intubation for esophagectomy and reconstruction with gast...

Phrenic nerve stimulation (PNS) can assess airflow dynamics of the upper airway (UA) during wakefulness in man. Using PNS, we aimed to assess the impact of neck flexion and mouth opening in promoting UA unstability. Measurements were made during nasal breathing in seven healthy subjects (ages = 23-39 yr; one woman). Surface diaphragm electromyogram, esophageal pressure referenced to mask pressu...

BACKGROUND Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) occur at an incidence of 5-12% in the general population. We aimed to investigate the rate of true-positives for a screening questionnaire for TMD (SQ-TMD) and differences in the characteristics between the true-positive and false-negative groups. Materials and. METHODS Seventy-six individuals (16 men, 60 women; mean age, 41.1 ± 16.5 years) were se...

Mandibular kinematic and standardized surface electromyography (sEMG) characteristics of masticatory muscles of subjects with short lasting TMD of mild-moderate severity were examined. Volunteers were submitted to clinical examination and questionnaire of severity. Ten subjects with TMD (age 27.3years, SD 7.8) and 10 control subjects without TMD, matched by age, were selected. Mandibular moveme...

Patients with extensive head and neck injuries due to trauma and/or extensive surgical procedures often exhibit a severely limited ability to open the mouth. For the dentist involved in prosthodontic treatment of such patients, restricted mouth opening commonly leads to compromised impressions and prostheses especially in cases where both hard and soft palatal parts have been resected. In prost...

Arthritis is a common disease affecting the temporomandibular joint. The inflammation causes local pain and decreased function of the masticatory system. Temporomandibular joint arthritis can result from mechanical overloading, general autoimmune disease or individual susceptibility. The aim of this study was to investigate objective and subjective treatment results after intra-articular inject...

OBJECTIVE Evaluate routine alterations in patients submitted to treatment of unilateral fractures of the mandibular condyle. PATIENTS AND METHODS The sample consisted of 30 patients of both sexes submitted to surgical and nonsurgical treatment. All patients answered an evaluation questionnaire on perception of the Oral Impact on Daily Performances (OIDP) and underwent physical and imaging exa...