[Visor osteotomy of the mandible in edentulous patients]

The use of a sliding osteotomy to reconstruct an incisive block on an edentulous mandible was first described by Frans Harle in 1975. Employed in cases of a flattened widened mandible, when bone material is still present, it supplies an elegant solution to the problem of the anterior stability of inferior total prosthesis. Results of the use of this technique are reported. The problem of the mucoperiosteal cover of the graft after it is slid above the bone base left in place was resolved by performing, with the true osteotomy, a mucous sliding graft completed by a thin skin graft. A slightly different sliding osteotomy is also proposed, in which the mandibular graft is slid in the inverse direction, thus partially correcting the false prognathism of the edentulous patient.