Extra-oral prosthetics: past and present.

The field of maxillofacial prosthetics is concerned with the prosthetic reconstruction of missing head and neck tissue. A prosthetic replacement of an exterior part is termed an epithesis. Beautiful examples of such prostheses were described as early as the 17th century. Often these defects were caused by war traumas or accidents. Currently, facial prostheses are usually applied in cases of defects caused by the surgical removal of tumors or congenital defects. Retention of devices has always been problematic. The contributions that implants can make to solve these problems are discussed by examining some cases.