Clinical Paper Oral Surgery Evaluation of different treatments for oroantral/ oronasal communications: experience of 112 cases A. Abuabara, A. L. V. Cortez, L. A. Passeri, M. de Moraes, R. W. F. Moreira: Evaluation of different treatments for oroantral/oronasal communications: experience of 112 cases. Int. J. Oral Maxillofac. Surg. 2006; 35: 155–158. # 2005 International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. A. Abuabara, A. L. V. Cortez, L. A. Passeri, M. de Moraes, R. W. F. Moreira Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, State University of Campinas, Piracicaba Dental School, Piracicaba, Sa ˜o Paulo, Brazil Abstract. This retrospective study analyzed the etiologic factors, location and treatments for patients with oroantral or oronasal communications (OAC or ONC). Data analysis extended to gender, age, etiology, location, type of treatment and short-term complications from January 1988 to May 2004. A total of 112 patients with 101 (90%) OAC and 11 (10%) ONC were included. The main etiology for OAC was tooth extraction (95%) with similar prevalence between right (49%) and left (51%) side. For ONC, pathological conditions (27%) and exodontia (27%) were the most prevalent. For the treatment of OAC, suture was the technique most frequently used (60%), followed by buccal fat pad (28%), buccal flap (9%), palatal flap (2%) and one dental transplant (1%). For ONC, the following treatments were used: suture (46%), buccal flap (36%) and palatal flap (18%). Failure to eliminate the communication occurred in six (6%) patients of the OAC group and three (27%) of the ONC group. The results confirm that tooth extraction was the most common etiologic factor for ONC and OAC. Suture, when the communication was small (3–5 mm), and the use of a buccal fat pad (100% successful), when a larger communication existed (>5 mm), seemed to be the two best choices for treatment. Accepted for publication 20 April 2005 Available online 13 June 2005 Communication is defined as the space created between the maxillary sinus and the buccal cavity (oroantral, OAC) or between the nasal cavity and buccal cavity (oronasal, ONC). There are many causes of OAC and ONC. They may be the result of cysts, traumas, tumors, pathological entities or even minor surgery 8 . The extraction of maxillary posterior teeth, however, is the most common cause of OAC, because of the anatomically close relationship between the root apices of the premolar and molar teeth and the maxil- lary antrum, and the thinness of the antral floor in that region, which ranges from 1 to 7 mm 19 . An OAC of less than 2 mm in diameter tends to close spontaneously, whereas those larger than 3 mm require surgical closure 10 . Various methods for the closure of communications have been reported in the literature, such as local flaps, distant flaps, grafts 3 and the buccal fat pad (BFP) 10 . This anatomical structure was Int. J. Oral Maxillofac. Surg. 2006; 35: 155–158 doi:10.1016/j.ijom.2005.04.024, available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com 0901-5027/020155 + 04 $30.00/0 # 2005 International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.