Diagnosis and treatment of growth disturbances of the facial skeleton require a high level of expertise and collaboration between a number of specialities. Within the department we have an orthodontic section which aids to the long-term care of these patients. Often a combination of interceptive orthopaedics, orthodontics and surgical treatment is required to obtain the best functional and aesthetic result. Treatment of some of the patients groups, eg. juvenile arthritis, patients with craniofacial syndromes or patients with sequelae to trauma is done in close collaboration with other medical specialities.

Distraction osteogenesis has been used to improve the surgical outcome of the treatment of patients with significant malformation in the facial skeleton. We have studied the biomechanical factors, functional outcome, complications and stability related to the treatment principle.

Secondary treatment of patients with cleft lip and palate has been studied to refine bone grafting techniques, orthognatic surgical procedures and distraction osteogenesis. The use of mandibular bone grafting has proven to be effective and cause  minor discomfort to the patients and long term stability of the occlusion is obtained by advancing the maxilla with distraction osteogenesis.

Pathological conditions of the jaw bones including osteomyelitis, osteonecrosis and osteoradionecrosis can be highly complex diseases, and we investigate improvement of diagnostic tools and treatment methods.