[Can inferior alveolar nerve lesions be avoided during sagittal splitting? Anatomy, surgical technique and neurological aspects].

The overriding principle in surgery should always be "nihil nocere". This is particularly true for maxillofacial surgery and assumes critical importance in orthognathic operations in which the prevention of motor and sensory nerve lesions should have priority. Considering that orthodontic surgery is increasingly done in an ever growing number of situations, it is obvious that this issue has become central to the decision-making process in each and every case. This contribution is designed to review the basic anatomy, to outline a useful surgical management concept and present the results obtained with it.