Assessment of recovery from injury to inferior alveolar and mental nerves.

Thirty-four patients had surgery near but not transecting either the inferior alveolar nerve or mental nerve. Thermal tests revealed that between 62% and 81% of the nerves that were evaluated had sensory deficits. Sixty-seven percent of patients had abnormal intraoral and extraoral responses to fine tactile testing. The least discriminative test was two-point contact. A smaller percentage (14% to 23%) were hyperpathic to heat stimuli, and a few (5% to 15%) had completely normal thermal and tactile sensation. A high percentage (43% to 71%) of patients elected to have corrective nerve surgery.