CLASSIFICATION OF MAXILLOFACIAL DEFECTS: A REVIEW ARTICLE

Defects in the maxillary jaw can be congenital, developmental, acquired, traumatic or surgical involving the oral cavity and related anatomic structure.Absence or loss of some or all of the soft palate and / or hard palate results in insufficient structure or altered function of the remaining tissues. Defects can cause disruption of articulation and airflow during speech production and also nasal reflux during deglutition. Patients after surgical resection have altered anatomy due to scaring, tissue contracture, lack of bony support and tissue edema. These patients have problem of regurgitation of water and food through nose and difficulty in speech. These changes require the fabrication of prosthesis and also sometimes repeated prosthesis adjustments to confirm to the soft tissue changes. To prevent this and to help the patient in deglutition and speech defects must be restored with prosthesis. In such situation an obturator is designed to close the opening between the residual hard and / or soft palate and the pharynx. The prosthesis provided for these patients are called as obturators. An obturator is a prosthesis which is fabricated for the patients with the palatal defects in the form of cleft lip and palate, oroantral fistula or surgical resection after removable of pathology like tumor or cancer. This review article will highlight on the Prosthetic Rehabilitation of the maxillary defects and the types of obturators.