[Dissertations 25 years after date 46. Treatment of mandibular fractures]

In the 1980s, professionals wanted to determine what the best method was for treating fractures of the mandibula. The emergence of osteosynthesis plates in the late 1960s, bringing with them the possibility of immediate functional restoration, had had a dramatic effect. This type of plate was most often placed by means of an extra-oral incision. A decade later, a system of smaller plates was introduced, which were placed intra-orally. A doctoral research project from 1991 investigated the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods of treating a mandibular fracture in order to determine which was most applicable. The importance of careful assessment on the basis of the type of fracture and the desired firmness of the osteosynthesis, described in the dissertation, is still decisive in conclusions concerning surgical treatment method and choice of material.