New Trends in Distraction Osteogenesis

Distraction osteogenesis (DO) is a treatment modality that involves bone regeneration in response to gradual separation of bone segments using a distractor. This technique uses natural bone healing following fractures. Enhancement of the surrounding soft tissue is an important advantage of this technique. Therefore, DO is a technique of jaw enlargement especially when great amount of movement is required and conventional orthognathic surgery cannot be performed. One question in this respect would be that can we perform DO in a way that no further orthognathic surgery would be required? In this chapter, the authors emphasize on distraction vector design and post-DO orthodontic and orthopedic methods and present illustrations and clinical cases to help perform DO. However, it should be considered that the aim of DO is to provide sufficient soft and hard tissue, not esthetics. Therefore, it should be noted that orthognathic surgery may be required for meticulous adjustment of the intermaxillary relationship after DO. This chapter describes different types of DO performed in the maxillofacial region including mandibular and maxillary lengthening and widening and alveolar bone augmentation. For each procedure, a case treated by the senior author is also described. Finally, the future perspectives of maxillofacial DO to accelerate bone regeneration and shorten the consolidation phase are reviewed.