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Family Health Magazine - Spring/Summer 2001

Regional Craniofacial Center Transforms Facial Deformities with New Technology

Sharing a meal with family or friends is a simple pleasure for many teenagers, but for Adrianna Hernandez, 18, it is an experience that she has only recently learned to enjoy. Adrianna spent most of her life hiding her face. A childhood injury left her jaw severely deformed and underdeveloped.

Since Adrianna moved from Puerto Rico to New Jersey two years ago,
a highly specialized team at the Regional Craniofacial Center at the Saint Barnabas Ambulatory Care Center have performed a series of state-of-the art techniques, transforming Adrianna's appearance and the function of her jaw. The Center utilizes distraction osteogenesis (the controlled growth of bone) and computer generated skeletal models in the correction of a wide variety of facial abnormalities. The team provides evaluation and treatment for a range of craniofacial impairments, including malformations of the hard and soft tissues of the skull, face and jaws in newborns and children.

"The advanced technology makes a dramatic difference in our ability to correct many types of facial deformities with less pain and trauma and with greater success," explains Cyrus J. Amato, D.D.S., an oral/maxillofacial surgeon at the Regional Craniofacial Center. Other members of the Center's professional team include an audiologist, dentists, an endocrinologist, geneticist and genetic counselor, neurosurgeon, orthodontist, plastic surgeon, otolaryngologist, pediatrician, psychologist and speech language pathologists.

"Before her treatment Adrianna was depressed and hid in her room when visitors came to the house," remembers her mother Diana Marquez. "When our family went to a restaurant, Adrianna would only order a drink because she was embarrassed to eat in front of anyone."

Miraculous Medicine

Physicians were able to stimulate nearly 18 millimeters of new growth in Adrianna's lower jaw with distraction osteogenesis. Surgeons fracture the facial bone at the site where new bone is desired and attach a small, customized appliance. The appliance is then used to gradually separate the bones over several weeks while the body fills the gap with new bone. "This process nearly eliminates the need for traumatic bone grafting, which often requires several surgeries to create the desired effect," explains Dr. Amato.

Another revolutionary advancement in craniofacial treatment that was also used in Adrianna's case was the creation of a precise, three-dimensional plastic model of the patient's skull generated by CT scan. Surgeons use the model to perform mock surgery and map the intricate and complex facial surgery before entering the operating room. "The model gives us total vision, makes the surgery much more accurate and reduces the operating time," says Dr. Theodore Niebloom, D.M.D., an oral/maxillofacial surgeon and member of the Regional Craniofacial Center's distinguished team.

Use of these highly advanced approaches has produced an extraordinary alteration in Adrianna's appearance, as well as her personality. "Today when I look at my daughter, I see a completely different person," says her mother. "She is confident in herself, sociable, and much more talkative."

"Using these techniques, we were able to correct the severe discrepancies in her jaw," says Richard Newman, D.M.D., orthodontist.

"When I look in the mirror, I feel happy," says a smiling Adrianna. The young woman who once hid her face from taunting peers now enjoys modeling for the camera, eating quesadillas at her favorite restaurant and caring for her pet cockatiel.

For more information about the Regional Craniofacial Center, please call (973) 322-7123.

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