2021 Volume 156 Pages 155-159
Laryngomicrosurgery is a well-established surgical procedure that is widely performed in general hospitals, but it is often performed by inexperienced doctors. The teeth (mainly the incisor tooth) or the gingiva may be damaged during insertion or fixation of the laryngoscope by an inexperienced operator, which could lead to medical litigation. Therefore, it is important, from the point of view of medical safety, to provide some kind of protection for the teeth. At our department, a prosthesis made of an elastic impression material called Coltoflax®, which is mainly composed of polysiloxane, is fitted over the dental arch of the patient just before the operation field deployment, to protect the teeth. Since this method is simple and the prosthesis can be made into any shape, it is useful not only for protecting the teeth, but also for fixing the laryngoscope. In addition, this method appears to be particularly useful in institutions where no facilities exist for dental or oral surgery.
