Special Topic Buccal Mucosal Flaps: A Review

The defects of mucosal surfaces of the face, either congenital, traumatic, or postoperative, have been prominent subjects of plastic surgery. Local skin flaps and free flaps have been used to repair these defects. Because the face is the most vascularized portion of the body, skin flaps in this area have a great chance for viability. Buccal mucosa also shares the same feature of vascularity and thus has the capability of amazingly fast healing. Taking into consideration these features, and the idea of using the most similar tissue for reconstruction, it is easy to understand why plastic surgeons have described many oral mucosal flaps. The purpose of this article is to collate, summarize, and critique the information available on the mucosal flaps. I reviewed the buccal mucosal flaps according to their sites of use.