In the relevant global context, although virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality have been emerging methodologies for several years, only now have technological and scientific advances made them suitable for revolutionizing clinical care and medical settings through the provision of advanced features and improved healthcare services. Over the past fifteen years, tools and applications using augmented reality (AR) have been designed and tested in the context of various surgical and medical disciplines, including maxillofacial surgery. The purpose of this paper is to show how a marker-less AR guidance system using the Microsoft® HoloLens 2 can be applied in mandible and maxillary demolition surgery to guide maxillary osteotomies. We describe three mandibular and maxillary oncologic resections performed during 2021 using AR support. In these three patients, we applied a marker-less tracking method based on recognition of the patient’s facial profile. The surgeon, using HoloLens 2 smart glasses, could see the virtual surgical planning superimposed on the patient’s anatomy. We showed that performing osteotomies under AR guidance is feasible and viable, as demonstrated by comparison with osteotomies performed using CAD-CAM cutting guides. This technology has advantages and disadvantages. However, further research is needed to improve the stability and robustness of the marker-less tracking method applied to patient face recognition.

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Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) is a disease that affects the jaw. It is mainly related to radiation or bisphosphonates therapy, and the symptoms and signs consist of pain, bone exposure, inflammation of the surrounding soft tissue swelling, and secondary infection or drainage. In the case of advanced disease of the mandibular area, the treatment of choice is mandibular resection and reconstruction. In the present study, we report a case series of patients affected by ONJ and treated with a customised bridging mandibular prosthesis-only technique. From 2016 to 2018, we treated five consecutive patients affected by ONJ: three patients were affected by biphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the mandible (BRONJ) and two were affected by osteoradionecrosis of the mandible (ORNJ). Three patients needed a soft tissue free flap to permit optimal wound closure, intra- and/or extraorally. All reconstructive procedures were carried out successfully, with no major or minor microvascular complication. The average postoperative follow-up was 24.8 (range 10–41) months. Considering that microvascular bone transfer is a high-risk procedure in BRONJ patients, we can conclude that the positioning of a customised bridging mandibular prosthesis (CBMP), whether or not associated with a microvascular soft tissue transfer, is a safe technique in terms of surgical outcome and feasibility.

Although the fibula free flap represents the gold standard for mandibular reconstructions, when implanted as a single barrel, this flap does not have the cross-sectional requisites to restore the native mandibular height, which is in turn required for the implant-supported dental rehabilitation of the patient. Our team has developed a design workflow that already considers the predicted dental rehabilitation, positioning the fibular free flap in the correct craniocaudal position to restore the native alveolar crest. The remaining height gap along the inferior mandibular margin is then filled by a patient-specific implant. The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy in transferring the planned mandibular anatomy resulting from said workflow on 10 patients by means of a new rigid body analysis method, derived from the evaluation of orthognathic surgery procedures. The analysis method has proved to be reliable and reproducible, and the results obtained show that the procedure already has satisfactory accuracy (4.6° mean total angular discrepancy, 2.7 mm total translational discrepancy, 1.04 mm mean neo-alveolar crest surface deviation), while also pointing out possible improvements to the virtual planning workflow.