Bone Reconstruction of Jaw – Upper Jaw and Lower Jaw
Tumors of the jaw bone most often require surgical removal. This will leave a gross deformity and also affects the basic function of chewing and speech. Hence reconstruction of such defects is mandatory. As the principle of Plastic Surgery states “Like with like tissue”, the defect in the jaw is to be replaced with bone. This bone is generally harvested from leg. The bone is contoured as per the defect dimension and fixed with plates and screws. The bone is harvested with its blood vessels and these vessels are connected to the neck vessels, to re-establish the blood supply. The new jaw bone joins with the existing jaw bone like fracture healing. Once the bone heals completely, teeth can be placed on this bone by a process called Osseo integration.