Eugénio Martins

Variáveis psicossociais associadas à cirurgia ortognática: uma revisão sistemática da literatura

Orthognathic surgery is a type of orthodontic treatment recommended for patients with dentofacial deformities. This issue has grown in the scientific community and, more recently, in the field of psychological science since there is an increasing number of people resorting to this type of treatment and psychologists are being hired to meet emotional needs of such patients. This paper focuses on a review of the literature from the last nine years and seeks to determine if some of the psychosocial characteristics of the patient contribute to the effectiveness of orthodontic-surgical treatment. Our research identified 14 studies and the results are presented according to the following: (a) pre-surgical phase; (b) short-term and mid-term post-surgical phases; and (c) long-term post-surgical phase. We observed that some of the patients characteristics and a closer patient-caregiver relationship seem to contribute to the satisfaction of the treatment. However, it is the quality of preventive psychological support towards risk factors that seems to determine the success of this orthodontic treatment. Overvaluation of expectations towards psychological benefits, insecurity in the decision making, lack of knowledge about the emotional costs of the surgery, lack of social support (or family pressure) as well as psychopathological disorders justify the need of psychological support. Finally, some positive and negative patient characteristics have been pointed out in this paper, and suggestions for future investigations have been made.

Coronal joint spaces of the Temporomandibular joint: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction The joint space measurements of the temporomandibular joint have been used to determine the condyle position variation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis on the coronal joint spaces measurements of the temporomandibular joint. Material and Methods An electronic database search was performed with the terms “condylar position”; “joint space”AND”TMJ”. Inclusionary criteria included: tomographic 3D imaging of the TMJ, presentation of at least two joint space measurements on the coronal plane. Exclusionary criteria were: mandibular fractures, animal studies, surgery, presence of genetic or chronic diseases, case reports, opinion or debate articles or unpublished material. The risk of bias of each study was judged as high, moderate or low according to the “Cochrane risk of bias tool”. The values used in the meta-analysis were the medial, superior and lateral joint space measurements and their differences between the right and left joint. Results From the initial search 2706 articles were retrieved. After excluding the duplicates and all the studies that did not match the eligibility criteria 4 articles classified for final review. All the retrieved articles were judged as low level of evidence. All of the reviewed studies were included in the meta-analysis concluding that the mean coronal joint space values were: medial joint space 2.94 mm, superior 2.55 mm and lateral 2.16 mm. Conclusions the analysis also showed high levels of heterogeneity. Right and left comparison did not show statistically significant differences. Key words:Temporomandibular joint, systematic review, meta-analysis.