[The role of the basic skeletal system in the stomatognathic apparatus. A critical review of the literature].

The authors make a literature review on the different interpretations of the stomatognathic apparatus and try to identify any component of it and to underline the importance of the basal skeletal structures (maxilla and mandible). In this study the authors examined three female patients affected by different pathologies (dysfunctional, malformative, and traumatic) treated at the Maxillo-Facial Surgery Department of "La Sapienza" University of Rome; in all cases the basal skeletal structures were involved with a total functional alteration of the stomatognathic apparatus. The primary aim of any maxillo-facial surgical treatment is the restoring of skeletal structural harmony with a re-equilibrium of all the components of the apparatus. In conclusion the authors confirm the importance of the basal skeletal system which is strictly connected to all other elements, for the physiologic structural development and functional harmony of the stomatognathic apparatus.