Management Of Craniofacial Deformities Research Articles

Nigel Hunt: 'I wanted to be an orthodontist before I wanted to be a dentist'.

Professor Nigel Hunt has been Professor and Head of the Department of Orthodontics at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute since 1998. His clinical interest is the management of craniofacial deformity, and he leads a research team in the field of craniofacial reconstruction and tissue engineering. Nigel was elected Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in June 2014. He is also the immediate past-Chairman of the British Orthodontic Society and its President for 2015.

The role of distraction osteogenesis in the management of craniofacial syndromes

Distraction osteogenesis (DO) has been established as a useful technique in the correction of skeletal anomalies of the long bones for several decades. However, the use of DO in the management of craniofacial deformities has been evolving over the past 20 years, with initial experience in the mandible, followed by the mid-face and subsequently, the cranium. This review aims to provide an overview of the current role of DO in the treatment of patients with craniofacial anomalies.

The Future? Craniofacial Skeletal Muscle Engineering as an Aid for the Management of Craniofacial Deformities

Craniofacial skeletal muscle engineering has the potential to avoid the limitations associated with the current technique of surgical tissue transfer for the management of soft-tissue defects. The ability to create new replacement tissue identical to that absent is attractive, particularly if function and esthetics are restored to ideal and there is reduced donor site morbidity. This review will discuss the in vitro investigations undertaken thus far to produce skeletal muscle tissue, which has the correct architecture and functional capabilities suited to individual demands.

Cartographic Mapping of the Skull from Computed Tomography Scans

Contemporary imaging technologies (i.e., computed tomography [CT] and magnetic resonance imaging) generate an overwhelming amount of data. Salient features from these data must be abstracted and presented to facilitate anatomical comprehension and imaging utility. Three-dimensional surface and volumetric reformations of CT data have extended the integration of high resolution CT data to the study and management of craniofacial deformities. Nonetheless, conventional displays of such imaging require multiple images to assess symmetry, sutural status, and traumatic disruption of the skull. We therefore devised a methodology to apply cylindrical cartographic mapping for display of the entire skull on 1 image. Cartographic mapping was used to evaluate the skulls of patients with congenital asymmetry due to hemifacial microsomia, craniosynostosis, and complex comminuted craniofacial fractures. Cartographic mapping does effectively display the entire skull in 1 image. Such images are useful to assess craniofacial symmetry, sutural status, and comminuted fractures. However, cartographic images cannot define anterior-posterior relationships, and they must be augmented with more traditional data displays for assessment of intermaxillary and jaw-cranial base relations.