www.swissbiomat.ch
A Personal Website on Biomaterials and Related Sciences

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Maxillofacial Surgery - maxillofacial surgery treats conditions, defects, injuries, and esthetic aspects of the mouth, teeth, jaws, and face and performs a wide range of surgical procedures on the bones and soft tissues of the face, mouth and neck. It includes a wide range of procedures:
- Cosmetic surgery--birth defects, trauma, injury, disease or age can upset the appearance of the face. Cosmetic maxillofacial surgery can restore features to a more aesthetically pleasing form.
- Orthognathic surgery (correcting misaligned jaws)--misaligned jaws can create problems with chewing and swallowing, as well as psychological concerns over aesthetic appearance.
- Cancer surgery of the face and neck--maxillofacial surgeons can monitor, diagnose and treat potentially cancerous lesions in these areas.
- Dental implant surgery--the loss of even one tooth can affect chewing and digesting, and pose the risk of jawbone resorption (loss). Maxillofacial surgeons can create and apply dental implants, artificial tooth roots, to sit in the place of the lost tooth. Artificial crowns can sit upon these implants and function just as a natural tooth would.
- Monitoring Facial Pain--often, facial pain comes from the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), the joint that opens and closes the mouth.
- Treating facial trauma-- treating broken facial bones, stictch deep cuts or wounds, and using wires and splints to hold injured bones or muscles together (http://www.dentalfind.com/glossary).

Membrane - In Guided Bone Regeneration, a membrane is a barrier placed over a periodontal defect to prevent the in-growth of cells from the gingival connective tissue, epithelium and the periodontal ligament. GBR membrane materials must maintain their barrier function long enough to allow osteoblasts to migrate into the wound. Resorbable and non-resorbable membranes have been used as a GBR barrier (http://www.thejcdp.com/issue018/aslan/02aslan.htm).
Membranes have four purposes in bone regeneration:
1. space creating
2. protection of blood clot and granulation tissue
3. exclusion of competing non-osteogenic cells
4. local accumulation of growth factors and bone promoting substances. (http://www.spallek.com/periodont/peris23.html)

Mitogen - (or mitogenic) An agent that stimulates DNA production and cell division (http://www.ptei.org/ Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative)


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Omentum - A sheet of fat that is covered by peritoneum. The greater omentum is attached to the bottom edge of the stomach, and hangs down in front of the intestines. Its other edge is attached to the transverse colon. The lesser omentum is attached to the top edge of the stomach, and extends to the undersurface of the liver (http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4632 )

Orthodontics - Orthodontics is the branch of dentistry devoted to correcting tooth alignment and bite problems. Orthodontists, dentists trained in orthodontics, straighten teeth and correct over or underbites. A perfect smile should consist of straight teeth, be gap and overlap-free, and align top teeth with the bottom. Mouth injuries, prolonged pacifier use in infancy, thumb-sucking in early childhood, and supernumary or impacted teeth can all cause misalignment. In some cases, a gap left by a knocked-out tooth creates a space for other teeth to shift into. Most often, though, orthodontic problems occur simply because the teeth and mouth are growing at different speeds (http://www.dentalfind.com/glossary)

Osseoconduction - a physical effect by which the matrix of the graft forms a scaffold on which cells in the recipient are able to form new bone (http://www.lifesteps.com/gm/Atoz/ency/bone_grafting_pr.jsp)

Osseoinduction - a chemical process in which molecules contained within the graft (bone morphogenetic proteins) convert the patient's cells into cells that are capable of forming bone (http://www.lifesteps.com/gm/Atoz/ency/bone_grafting_pr.jsp)


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PDGF = Platelet derived growth factor - glycoprotein growth factor that stimulates cell proliferation and chemotaxis in cartilage, bone, and many other cell types after being produced by mesenchymal cells or released by platelets during clotting
(http://www.ptei.org/ Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative)

PRF = Platelet Rich Fibrin - preparations in which blood is drawn from the patient and then centrifuged at high speeds to create platelet-rich plasma. The platelet-rich plasma is activated with various reagents to convert fibrinogen to fibrin, creating a gel like substance, which in turn is applied immediately to the wound (http://www.healthlink.com/provider/medpolicy/policies/pharmacology/platelet_growth_factors.html)


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Rapid prototyping - Rapid prototyping is the name given to a host of related technologies that are used to fabricate physical objects directly from CAD data sources. These methods are unique in that they add and bond materials in layers to form objects. Such systems are also known by the general names solid freeform fabrication and layered manufacturing and offer advantages in many applications compared to classical subtractive fabrication methods such as milling or turning:
- Objects can be formed with any geometric complexity or intricacy without the need for elaborate machine setup or final assembly;
- Objects can be made from multiple materials, or as composites, or materials can even be varied in a controlled fashion at any location in an object;
- Solid freeform fabrication systems reduce the construction of complex objects to a manageable, straightforward, and relatively fast process.
(http://home.att.net/~castleisland/home.htm The Worldwide Guide to Rapid Prototyping )