Assessment of recovery from injury to inferior alveolar and mental nerves.
Thirty-four patients had surgery near but not transecting either the inferior alveolar nerve or mental nerve. Thermal tests revealed that between 62% and 81% of the nerves that were evaluated had sensory deficits. Sixty-seven percent of patients had abnormal intraoral and extraoral responses to fine tactile testing. The least discriminative test was two-point contact. A smaller percentage (14% to 23%) were hyperpathic to heat stimuli, and a few (5% to 15%) had completely normal thermal and tactile sensation. A high percentage (43% to 71%) of patients elected to have corrective nerve surgery.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004056:Differential Threshold; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008340:Mandibular Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012677:Sensation / Q000502:physiology*; D012803:Sick Role; D013697:Thermosensing / Q000502:physiology; D014110:Touch; D061221:Trigeminal Nerve Injuries