Osteomyelitis of the jaws: A retrospective series of 40 patients.

Introduction: The caseload of jaw osteomyelitis seem to have decreased considerably over the last fifty years thanks to the progress of oral hygiene, the appearance and the use of antibiotics, and early screening. 'Limited osteitis' remains frequent in general practice (alveolitis after dental extraction), but osteomyelitis is much rarer as evidenced by the lack of current literature and the low number of reported patients in the published series. The aim of this study was to analyze retrospectively all the cases of maxillo-mandibular osteomyelitis treated in a large academic department of Stomatology and Maxillofacial Surgery over a period of 6 years and to compare the results to data from the literature.