The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the range of motion exercise of the temporo-mandibular joint (jaw ROM exercise) with a hot pack and massage of the masseter muscle improve biting disorder in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The subjects were 18 DMD patients (21.3+/- 4.1 years old). The jaw ROM exercise consisted of therapist-assisted training (2 times a week) and self-training...

PURPOSE The authors' general aim is to use biomechanical models of speech articulators to explore how possible variations in anatomical structure contribute to differences in articulatory strategies and phone systems across human populations. Specifically, they investigated 2 issues: (a) the link between lip muscle anatomy and variability in lip gestures and (b) the constraints of coupled lip/j...

Reflex responses in jaw-opening muscles can be evoked when a brittle object cracks between the teeth and suddenly unloads the jaw. We hypothesized that this reflex response is flexible and, as such, is modulated according to the instructed goal of biting through an object. Study participants performed two different biting tasks when holding a peanut half stacked on a chocolate piece between the...

Abstract: Previous phonetic studies of metrical prominence have primarily focused on its acoustic manifestations, including pitch, intensity, duration, spectral tilt, etc. In this paper we outline our new research program in which we explore jaw displacement patterns as another articulatory reflex of metrical prominence. We present our studies of English and Japanese in some detail, which show ...

The lower jaw of an unidentified Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous) tetrapod from Nova Scotia--the "Parrsboro jaw"--is redescribed in the light of recent tetrapod discoveries and work on evolution of tetrapod mandibular morphology and placed for the first time in a numerical cladistics analysis. All phylogenetic analyses place the jaw in a crownward polytomy of baphetids, temnospondyls, and emb...

Desmoplastic fibroma (DF) is a benign, locally aggressive neoplasm that rarely occurs in the facial skeleton. It usually presents during the first three decades of life. Due to its aggressiveness and high recurrence rate, early diagnosis is imperative, and complete surgical removal of the lesion is the treatment of choice. Herein, we present three cases of DF namely a 2 year-old girl with a man...

Calcifying odontogenic cyst is a rare entity which was first described by Gorlin, and also accounts for 1% of the jaw cysts according to Shear. Due to its diverse histopathology and variable clinical features, there has been a doubt regarding its nature as a cyst or a neoplasm. In this report we present a case of calcifying odontogenic cyst with mural ameloblastomatous presentation in the left ...

     Osteosarcoma (OS) is a malignant tumor that induces formation of osteoid or immature bone and rarely occurs in maxilla. Maxillofacial OSs are reported to occur in the third to fifth decades that is 1-2 decades later than the mean age for OS of long bones. The present case is a 62-year-old man with facial asymmetry and pain in his left upper jaw. Intraoral examination showed a bony hard, te...

to follow the recipe and make goulash. So in relating genotype to phenotype we will get nowhere if we confine embryology to a black box. The contribution to development is the only way genes affect phenotype. We also need to understand how incremental changes in phenotype could result from small changes in development, which then result from changes in DNA. This severely limits natural selectio...