Condylar fractures treatment in children and youths: influence on function and face development (a five year retrospective analysis).

To evaluate relationship between consequences of TMJ fractures in children and disturbed facial skeleton growth, 46 children (18 girls, 28 boys), who were 14 years of age or younger and had undergone combined clinical and radiolographic examination for five years were retrospectively analyzed. Imaging studies were performed to investigate symptoms that included, either individually or in various combinations, pain, mechanical TMJ disfunction and facial skeleton abnormalities. The children were divided into two groups: those belonging to the former had been treated by functional orthopedic method alone, while the others had just been treated by physiotherapy. Both TMJs were normal in the patients treated functionally and they all showed normal facial structure, while different types of alterations (ranging from inflammatory to mechanical and structural ones) were observed in the others. We concluded that therapeutic procedures adopted after TMJ fractures in children are essential in minimizing consequences on occlusion and facial development.