Jaw angle implants are one of the most unique facial augmentation techniques given its posterior jaw location. Placed under the thick masseter muscle and having a remote and limited access to do so from inside the mouth, the placement of the implant on the exact and symmetric position on the jaw angle bone can be challenging. This is made even more challenging with new implant styles such as the vertical lengthening jaw angle implant in which a portion of the implant is deliberately designed to sit off the lower edge of the bone.
Beyond intraoperative implant positioning concerns, there is also the potential for the implant to move from its desired position. Such implant displacements always occur in an anterior and superior towards the location of the vestibular incisions. Undesired implant movements naturally occur towards the direction in which they were inserted.
To prevent jaw angle implant displacement, screw fixation is almost always used. Over the years I have developed a screw fixation technique that is both reliable and rapid to perform. Trying to insert screws from inside the mouth is both difficult and cumbersome to perform. What works best is a percutaneous technique.
Using a 1.5mm screwdriver, it is inserted through a small 3mm skin nick through the masseter muscle in a perpendicular orientation to the bone’s surface. Once inside the implant pocket it is turned and pointed out of the mouth. A self-tapping screw is placed on the screwdriver blade which is self-retaining. The screwdriver is pulled back into the mouth and turned towards the bone where it its inserted through a superior edge of the implant and driven into the bone. This same technique is repeated for as many screws as one needs to place for optimal implant security. (I have never placed more than two screws
With this jaw angle implant s crew fixation technique, which takes just a few minutes to perform for both sides, one can be assured that the implants will not shift from where they were positioned on the bone.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana