• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.351-357
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• 2016

Rehabilitation of maxillectomy patients is challenging. The maxillary defects need to functional restoration because of mastication, speech, swallowing problems. The goal of making obturator is to restore maxillary defects and give patients comfortable, esthetic prosthesis. This case report presents acquired masticatory and esthetic results and improved retention resulting from the pharyngeal obturator prosthesis using implant.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.411-416
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• 2016

Patients who underwent resection of maxilla due to benign or malignant tumor, or accident will have defect in palatal area. They get retention, support and stability from remaining tissues which are hardly optimal. The advantage of swing-lock attachment design is having multiple contacts on labial and lingual side of the abutment teeth by retentive strut and palatal bracing component. Because the force is distributed equally to abutment teeth, abutment teeth of poor prognosis can be benefited from it. It is also more advantageous to cover soft tissue defects which are hard to reach with conventional prosthesis. A 56-year-old female patient who had undergone a maxillectomy due to malignant melanoma complaining of loose and unstable surgical obturator. Surveyed crowns were placed on #12, 26, and 27. Teeth #11, 21, 22, and 23 had lingual rest seat and #24 had mesial rest seat to improve stability and support of the obturator. This clinical report presents the prosthetic management of a patient treated with obturator on the maxilla using swing-lock attachment to the remaining teeth.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2010

Maxillectomy is a treatment option for maxillary cancer, which leaves the patient with a palatal defect. It may cause problems with facial deformation, swallowing, mastication, and speech. These functional problems and changes in appearance may result in psychological problems. To control these deficits after maxillectomy, surgical reconstruction or prosthodontic treatment can be chosen as a treatment option. Obturator prosthesis has been used as a preferred method of rehabilitation for most maxillectomy patients. This case is a patient who was classified Aramany classification II hemi-maxillectomy patient with residual teeth from #11-25, whose teeth had substantial labioversion and clinically lengthened from alveolar bone involution, thus making it hard to select proper framework design and resist to the rotational dislodging force of the obturator. Therefore we selected swing-lock attachment design to remain pre-existing crown and bridges and obtain retention and stability of obturator. The swing-lock RPD is economical than the conventional RPD because we can remain pre-existing crown and bridges. And residual teeth which have mobility and poor prognosis can be successfully retained through properly designed swing-lock RPD as it is functioning as a removable splint on the teeth.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to observe the trend of compounds release from acrylic resin oral prosthesis when used for drug delivery as well as a restoration. In this study, 10 specimens of heat-cured polymethylmethacrylate material were prepared and loaded with methylene blue biological stain. The specimens were then submerged in vials with 5 ml distilled water for 24 hours. The extraction procedure continued for 4 days, each day the specimens were immersed in another 5 ml distilled water vial. All extracted solutions were analyzed by visible light spectroscopy for absorbance comparison. The statistical results showed that the absorbance values were significantly different in the first day of extraction than the following days. However, there was no statistical difference among the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th days of extraction. Biological stain loading to acrylic resin at the mixing stage, and then after extraction in distilled water, showed a burst release during the first day followed by a constant release during the following few days.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2016

The maxillary defects lead to anatomical and functional deformity of the maxillofacial region. As far as functions are concerned, such defects can produce difficulty in speech, mastication, and deglutition. Obturator prostheses play a very important role in functional recovery for post-maxillectomy patients. To achieve rigidity of the obturator, appropriate retention should be given, and the weight of the prosthesis be reduced. There are two types of hollow bulb obturator: open and closed. A closed type has many advantages. Nevertheless, some problems, including complexity of fabrication and water leakage into the bulb, have the closed hollow obturator not be widely used. The one-step polymerization technique described in this case overcomes the shortcomings by easily constructing a small hollow bulb with two thermoplastic resin sheets.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.356-363
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• 2019

A patient who went through maxillectomy can have soft palate defects including oronasal fistulas and suffer from dysphagia and dysarthria due to velopharyngeal insufficiency. This defect causes the food to enter nasal cavity and creates hypernasal sound which debilitates a quality of life. An obturator can rehabilitate the substantial oral tissue defects. The maxillary obturator separates the nasopharynx from the oropharynx during speech and deglutition by closing of the defect. For edentulous obturator patient, it is difficult to obtain proper retention due to reduced peripheral sealing. Therefore, the contours of the defects must be used to maximize the retention, stability, and support. Hollow type obturator can improve physiologic function by reducing weight than the traditional obturator. This case report describes a patient with hemi-maxillectomy who recovers mastication, speech, deglutition, and appearance with a maxillary obturator using physiological border molding of the velopharyngeal area and double-processing method.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.198-204
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• 2017

Maxillofacial defect comes from congenital defect, trauma and surgical resection. Patients with intraoral defect are commonly related to maxillary defect and they need prosthetic rehabilitation. Functional reconstruction of partially edentulous mandible has many limitations. However, if both condyles are intact, maxillofacial prosthesis using partial denture give competent results. In this case, a patient of 58 year-old male has a defect on palate and left mandibular posterior teeth from gunshot. The maxillary defect of this patient is Class IV according to Aramany classification and the mandibular one is Type V according to Cantor and Curtis classification. For retention of the obturator, remaining teeth are fully utilized and artificial teeth are arranged harmoniously to provide stable occlusion. Mandibular RPD covered limited range of deformed soft tissue derived from mandibular resection surgery. With these treatments, the patient in this case showed improvements in mastication, swallowing and speech.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.167-171
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• 2016

Patients undergone partial maxillectomy experience post-operative masticatory, phonetic, and swallowing difficulties. They also encounter social and psychological challenges due to changes in their facial appearances. Thus, functional and esthetic recovery through maxillofacial prosthesis becomes significant for these patients. The objective of an appropriate obturator is to restore palate and improve phonetic and swallowing ability by separating the oral cavity, nasal cavity, maxillary sinus, and nasopharynx. In this case report, an obturator was fabricated for a patient who had partial resection from the maxillary posterior region to the pharynx due to squamous cell carcinoma. The purpose of this case study is to describe the results because the patient was successfully improved both functionally and esthetically.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.105-110
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• 2016

Oral mucormycosis is a fungal infection observed mainly in elderly immunocompromised patients. In rare instances, the disease occurs in healthy individuals and those patients that are below preschool age. Although this condition mainly involves the maxilla, it may also manifest in any part of the oral cavity based on the source of infection. Mucormycosis of the maxilla spreads rapidly, leading to necrosis of the palatal bone and palatal perforation. Such patients are usually rehabilitated using bone grafting or free flap surgeries. However, when surgeries are delayed, palatal prosthesis is an interim treatment modality that can prevent nasal regurgitation and aspiration of food or fluids. Palatal prostheses also help with mastication, speech, and swallowing. The present case describes a rare case of oral mucormycosis in an 18-month-old male involving the maxilla that was managed by palatal prosthesis.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.39
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• pp.13.1-13.8
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• 2017

Background: Oronasal/antral communication, loss of teeth and/or tooth-supporting bone, and facial contour deformity may occur as a consequence of maxillectomy for cancer. As a result, speaking, chewing, swallowing, and appearance are variably affected. The restoration is focused on rebuilding the oronasal wall, using either flaps (local or free) for primary closure, either prosthetic obturator. Postoperative radiotherapy surely postpones every dental procedure aimed to set fixed devices, often makes it difficult and risky, even unfeasible. Regular prosthesis, tooth-bearing obturator, and endosseous implants (in native and/or transplanted bone) are used in order to complete dental rehabilitation. Zygomatic implantology (ZI) is a valid, usually delayed, multi-staged procedure, either after having primarily closed the oronasal/antral communication or after left it untreated or amended with obturator. The present paper is an early report of a relatively new, one-stage approach for rehabilitation of patients after tumour resection, with palatal repair with loco-regional flaps and zygomatic implant insertion: supposed advantages are concentration of surgical procedures, reduced time of rehabilitation, and lowered patient discomfort. Cases presentation: We report three patients who underwent alveolo-maxillary resection for cancer and had the resulting oroantral communication directly closed with loco-regional flaps. Simultaneous zygomatic implant insertion was added, in view of granting the optimal dental rehabilitation. Conclusions: All surgical procedures were successful in terms of oroantral separation and implant survival. One patient had the fixed dental restoration just after 3 months, and the others had to receive postoperative radiotherapy; thus, rehabilitation timing was longer, as expected. We think this approach could improve the outcome in selected patients.