Injuries and diseases of the jaws : the Jacksonian prize essay of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1867 / by Christopher Heath.

Heath, Christopher, 1835-1905.

Date:: 1884

Credit: Injuries and diseases of the jaws : the Jacksonian prize essay of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1867 / by Christopher Heath. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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$drawn inwards and forwards by the pterygoideus externus, as can be ascertained by passing the finger into the mouth, and the jaw-bone is apt to become slightly displaced, so that the chin is turned towards the affected side and not from it, as is the case in dislocation. Dr. Fountain has recorded in the New York Medical Journal, January, 1860, a case of fracture of the neck of the left condyle with fracture through the body on both sides, caused by a fall from a height, in which the following symptoms were present. The jaw was displaced backwards and laterally on the left side—a displacement which was temporarily rectified as long as traction was made at the symphysis, which the connexions of the middle fragment with the membranous and muscular tissues permitted. As soon as this traction was removed the lateral deformity was reproduced, and every contrivance resorted to failed to main- tain a permanent reduction of the fracture of the neck, until the upper and lower teeth were wired together so as to keep up traction on the lower jaw. The case did well, and recovered without any deformity. When double fracture of the neck occurs, the violence miist have been so great as in most cases to lead shortly to fatal results, but M. Berard has recorded a case in which the double fracture did not at first lead to any displacement, but on the fifth day convulsions ensued, which led to con- siderable displacement and subsequent death. Watson, of New York, has moreover recorded a case of recovery in the person of a man who fell from the yard- arm of a vessel, breaking his thigh and arm bones and both condyles of the lower jaw, with the following symptoms :— His face was somewhat deformed by the retraction of the chin; the mouth could not be opened so as to protrude the tongue to any great extent beyond the teeth, and the teeth of the upper and lower jaw could not be brought into contact. In attempting to move the jaw the patient ex- perienced pain and crepitation just in front of the ears ; the crepitation could be easily felt by placing the fingers over the fractured condyles. Nothing was done for the$