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The department offers the complete operative and conservative health care spectrum of oral and maxillofacial surgery as well as plastic and reconstructive facial surgery. It is equipped with two operating rooms, an additional outpatient surgical unit, and a laser therapy unit. In addition to adult inpatients (23 beds), children are accommodated on a separate ward in the pediatric department. Traumatized patients are treated by an interdisciplinary team which also includes members of the Department of Traumatology. At present, 14 surgeons belong to the department’s staff: the head of the department, 3 assistant medical directors, 7 double-degree residents, and 3 dentists pursuing continuing education in oral surgery.
The department offers special consultations for patients suffering from cleft lip and palate, craniofacial malformation, dysgnathia, cancer of the oral and maxillofacial area, fractures of the facial skeleton, and diseases of the temporomandibular joint, and for patients requiring dental implantology. Interdisciplinary consultations are held in cooperation with the policlinic for orthodontics (dysgnathia), the policlinic for prosthodontics (masticatory rehabilitation), the Department of Dermatology (diseases of the oral mucosa) and the Department of Neurosurgery (subcranial and craniofacial surgery). The department maintains a 24-hour oral and maxillofacial emergency service.
Focuses of patient treatment are
(1) Cleft Lip and Palate Center: The university medical center is the biggest European treatment center for patients with cleft lip and cleft palate. It is the first medical center in Germany where even complete clefts are closed in just one operation. Patients receive interdisciplinary care with an individual approach that pays special attention to their bio-psychosocial factors.
(2) Therapy of craniofacial malformation: Due to their complexity, these operations are planned using three-dimensional technology and are carried out in close cooperation with the Department of Neurosurgery. This enables the precise performance of skeletal remodeling and the fitting of transplants or implants. Due to the use of 3D-technology, functional and aesthetic outcomes can be improved and operation times can be reduced.
(3) Operations for dysgnathia: Serious anomalies of form and position of the jaws that cannot be treated with orthodontics alone are planned with the aid of computer modeling. During the operation, the temporomandibular joints are exactly positioned under sonographic control. For osteofixation the most up-to-date resorbable osteosynthesis systems are used.
(4) Cancer surgery: Treatment of tumors of the facial region and the oral cavity, including full functional and aesthetic rehabilitation, is accomplished through a common multimodal concept followed by our department and the departments of neuroradiology, radiotherapy, diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine. Of special interest is the creation of an individualized concept addressing the patient’s speaking and swallowing functions, which greatly influence the patient’s quality of life.
(5) Traumatology: Treatment of injuries of the facial skeleton is dominated by modern methods of osteosynthesis and the use of the latest materials. For special indications, minimally invasive techniques for treatment of mandibular fractures are used.
(6) Local plastic-reconstructive and aesthetic-based surgery: For reconstructive surgery of large cancer- or trauma-based defects of the bone or the facial soft tissue, modern microsurgical techniques for aesthetic and functional rehabilitation are used. Customized individual transplants and implants are manufactured using 3D-methods and the latest materials and technologies.
(7) Dentoalveolar surgery and maxillofacial implantology: Modern techniques in dentoalveolar surgery and intra- and extraoral laser surgery are also used. In particular, the use of new types of implants with coated surfaces permits application even for complicated circumstances such as maxillary and mandibular atrophy.
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