Type I Collagen-Based Devices to Treat Nerve Injuries after Oral Surgery Procedures. A Systematic Review

Abstract

The regeneration of nerve injuries after oral surgery procedures is a quite often attempted procedure in dental medicine. Despite several proposed technical approaches, there is still a lack of consensus on which should be considered the gold standard procedure, even-though in the last decades, the use of collagen-based devices allowing a tension-free direct neurorrhaphy has been used. A systematic search of multiple electronic databases and hand searching was conducted to assess the level of evidence behind the use of type I collagen devices to treat nerve injuries after oral surgery procedures. After screening, four articles (one case series and three retrospective studies) including overall 65 patients suffering from inferior alveolar (IAN)/lingual nerve (LN) injury after mandibular wisdom tooth extraction, met the inclusion criteria and could be included. The Oxford Centre for evidence-based medicine (OCEBM) scaling system was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Positive clinical results in terms of sensorial improvements were recorded at least 3 months after surgery, even-though the overall level of evidence is low. The use of collagen membranes to enhance nerve regeneration in oral surgery results in promising results. Nevertheless, additional clinical comparative trials with larger sample sizes are needed.