Hyderabad: Jaw bone reconstructed for 2 black fungus patients

After testing positive for Covid-19, dental and maxillofacial surgeons at Medicover Hospitals in Madhapur successfully repaired the complete jaw bone of two patients who had lost their capacity to speak owing to black fungus or Mucormycosis.

Both the patients had recovered from Covid-19 but later realised that they lost their ability to speak, chew and even move their jaw freely due to the fungal infection. Doctors said the infection among the two patients had spread to most of the jaw bone.

Due to their medical condition, surgeons led by senior prosthodontist and implantologist, Department of Dental and Maxillofacial, Medicare Hospitals, Dr C Sharath Babu took-up upper jaw resection surgery involving removal of cheek bones, palate, base of eye, soft tissue etc and later took-up reconstruction.

“With the help of titanium material, we managed to build patient-specific implants and rehabilitated both the patients completely. Now they have started to speak and all the functionalities including aesthetics have been restored. We took the advantage of 3D printing and reconstructive models to develop and reconstruct facial bones and all the lost structures including teeth were rebuilt to achieve perfect aesthetics,” Dr Sharath said.

Later, speech, chewing efficiency and aesthetics among both the patients were improved gradually by the team of doctors. The treatment given and the expert care taken resulted in a lot of improvement in the quality of the patients’ lives, Dr Sharath added.