%0 Journal Article
%T Soft Tissue Management and Prosthetic Rehabilitation in a Tongue Cancer Patient
%A Umberto Romeo
%A Marco Lollobrigida
%A Gaspare Palaia
%A Domenica Laurito
%A Riccardo Cugnetto
%A Alberto De Biase
%J Case Reports in Dentistry
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/475186
%X One major challenge in treating head and neck oncologic patients is to achieve an acceptable recovery of physiologic functions compatible with the complete tumor excision. However, after tumor resection, some patients present a surgically altered anatomy incompatible with prosthetic rehabilitation, unless some soft tissue correction is carried out. The aim of the present study is to describe the overall mandibular prosthetic rehabilitation of a postoncologic patient focusing on the possibility of soft tissue correction as a part of the treatment. A 72-year-old woman, who undergone a hemiglossectomy for squamous cell carcinoma several years before, was referred to our department needing a new prosthesis. The patient presented partial mandibular edentulism, defects in tongue mobility, and a bridge of scar tissue connecting one side of the tongue to the alveolar ridge. A diode laser (980£¿nm) was used to remove the fibrous scar tissue. After reestablishing a proper vestibular depth and soft tissue morphology, two implants were placed in the interforaminal region of the mandible to support an overdenture. 1. Introduction Technical advances in head and neck cancer reconstructive surgery have led surgeons not to consider the complete ablation of neoplasms alone as the focus of treatment planning but rather inseparably from the possibility to return patients, as close as possible, to their premorbid condition. This means the necessity to preserve or restore several essential functions like speech, mastication and deglutition [1, 2]. Dental rehabilitation is an important aspect of such comprehensive treatments, aiming to replace teeth that are missing as a consequence of tumor resection or that patients have already lost. Oral implants offer many advantages in treating edentulous patients who undergone cancer resection when prosthesis has to fit to an altered anatomy [3]. In particular, implant supported overdentures were demonstrated to be a predictable solution for edentulous patients with excellent long-term prognosis, assuring better retention and stability than conventional dentures [4]. While there is no doubt for postoncologic patients about the benefits of an implant supported rehabilitation in terms of stability and retention [5], some questions still remain about the opportunity of placing implants in those patients who received radiation therapy following the surgical treatment due to the possibility of soft tissue complications and low rates of osseointegration reported in the literature [6]. However, if the first decades of the modern implant era
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/crid/2013/475186/