Oral stent for peri-implant soft tissue management on jaw reconstruction: A simple, fast, and predictable technique

Abstract

Maxillofacial defects from tumor ablative surgery often bring about masticatory dysfunction. Reconstruction with vascularized flaps and oral rehabilitation are often challenging. Whenever possible, dental implants can improve patients' quality of life and comfort but the shallowness or absence of the oral vestibule, the flaps’ position, volume and mobility, the nature of surrounding tissues do not always allow a fabrication of prostheses in satisfactory conditions. The use of an oral stent was proposed to control, guide healing and position tissue around implants according to prosthetic needs. This article introduces a technic to fabricate a custom oral stent which is interesting because simple, fast, predictable and inexpensive.