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Novel Mouth‐Exercising Device for Oral Submucous Fibrosis
Author(s) -
Patil Pravinkumar G.,
Patil Smita P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of prosthodontics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.902
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1532-849X
pISSN - 1059-941X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-849x.2012.00874.x
Subject(s) - oral submucous fibrosis , trismus , medicine , cheek , swallowing , treatment modality , mastication , fibrosis , dentistry , soft tissue , surgery
Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is a chronic inflammatory disease resulting in progressive juxtaepithelial fibrosis of the oral soft tissues and can cause increasing difficulty in mastication, swallowing, speaking, and mouth opening. The treatment of severe trismus requires a combination of surgical release and physiotherapy. Often physiotherapy alone can modify tissue remodeling in OSMF to increase oral opening. This article describes the fabrication and use of a new mouth‐exercising device that helps the patient to squeeze/stretch the cheek mucosa to increase elasticity. The device can be used as a sole treatment modality or can be used in association with pharmacological and surgical treatment modalities for OSMF. Improvement in mouth opening was observed in four OSMF patients treated with a mouth‐exercising device for 6 months as a sole treatment modality.