Abstract
Injuries to the mental nerve are not an uncommon complication in maxillofacial surgeries.
Manipulation close to the mental nerve poses a great risk of nerve injury from drills,
bone cutting and trimming burs, and oscillating/reciprocating saws. Nerve injuries
can be painful and affect the patient’s quality of life. The accompanying complication
of the nerve injury depends on the severity of the damage inflicted and can range
from transient hypoesthesia to neuropathic pain or trigeminal neuralgia. It is considered
that direct injury to the nerve may lead to permanent damage and more severe postoperative
clinical symptoms than indirect injuries caused by nerve stretching or during endosteal
implant fixation. This technical note describes a technique for shielding the mental
nerve and protecting it from rotary drill injury during mandibular inferior border
recontouring, orthognathic surgeries, and mandibular body fracture fixation.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial SurgeryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Neuropathic pain after orthognathic surgery.Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2014; 117: e102-e107
- A classification of peripheral nerve injuries producing loss of function.Brain. 1951; 74: 491-516
- Neurosensory recovery following mental nerve skeletonization in intraoral open reduction and internal fixation of mandible fractures.J Oral Maxillofac Surg. 2021; 79: 183-191
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 06, 2023
Accepted:
December 19,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
