Our clinic provides maxillofacial prosthodontic services to diagnose and treat patients with maxillofacial acquired, congenital and developmental defects of the head and neck. These deformities can be a result of trauma, surgical intervention to treat head and neck cancer or congenital malformations. This clinic is a private outpatient clinic located at the Perlman Medical Offices on the UCSD Campus next to the Thornton Medical Centre and Jacobs Medical Center. This enables us to work closely with the Head and Neck Surgery Department at UCSD, Radiation Oncology, Speech Pathology and Plastic Surgery Department amongst others.
By being part of the otolaryngology team, our maxillofacial prosthodontist provides prosthetics for the head and neck and maxillofacial area. Our clinic can provide conventional or digital 3D designed and custom manufactured oral prosthetics to restore speech, swallowing, facial form and function, and airways for our patients.
Our clinic provides services in both surgical and prosthodontic implant dentistry.
We are also able to offer dental oncology management of medical oncology patients, by close collaboration with the radiotherapists providing initial evaluation, diagnosis and various treatment modalities, in order to restore and maintain the oral and dental health of patients before, during, and after their radiation and chemotherapy.
Positioning devices and radiation stents are custom manufactured to isolate head and neck areas that are exposed to radiation but aren’t affected from cancer.
Patients can be treated therefore for various radiation and chemotherapy complications and with different treatment modalities. Some of these conditions include:
- Osteonecrosis of the jaw or intraoral bleeding and ulcerations as a result of chemotherapy
- Osteoradionecrosis of the jaws, mucositis, Xerostomia (dry mouth), muscular fibrosis and trismus as a result of radiation
Fluoride customized stents are provided for protecting the teeth from radiation caries.
Sleep apnea devices are manufactured for patients that present with sleep disorders and do not tolerate CPAP medical devices well.
Immediate surgical obturators, surgical splints, Interim and definitive obturators, mandibular resection prosthesis and other customized prostheses, can be fabricated to prosthetically reconstruct the various Maxillofacial defects.
