Methods of rigid fixation

Rigid fixation has been an exciting and major advance in maxillofacial surgery. Further studies will elucidate how much strength is necessary to achieve the proper amount of fixation necessary in each region of the facial skeleton. This information coupled with improvements in design will allow production of the lowest-profile implants possible for each area of the craniofacial skeleton. An exciting future possibility is construction of rigid fixation systems made of resorbable plates and screws. Research is in progress to find methods of constructing a system that incorporates the proper rate of resorption, the necessary strength, and precisely constructed plates and screws.