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Table of Contents
Part 33
But if the bone be fairly broken across (this, however, rarely happens), it is to be set in the manner now described. When adjusted, the teeth are to be fastened together as formerly described, for this will contribute much toward keeping the parts at rest, especially if properly fastened, and the ends of the thread secured with knots. But it is not easy to describe exactly in writing the whole manipulation of the case; but the reader must figure the thing to himself from the description given. Then one must take a piece of Carthaginian leather; if the patient be a younger person, it will be sufficient to use the outer skin, but if an adult the whole thickness of the hide will be required; it is to be cut to the breadth of about three inches, or as much as will be required, and having smeared the jaw with a little gum (for thus it sticks more pleasantly), the end of the skin is to be fastened with the glue near the fractured part of the jaw, at the distance of an inch or a little more, from the wound. This piece is to be applied below the jaw; but the thong should have a cut in it, in the direction of the chin, so that it may go over the sharp point of the chin. Another piece of thong like this, or somewhat broader, is to be glued to the upper part of the jaw, at about the same distance from the wound as the other thong; this thong should be so cut as to encircle the ear. The thongs should be sharp-pointed at the part where they unite, and in gluing them, the flesh of the thong should be turned to the patient's skin, for in this way it will be more tenacious; then we must stretch this thong, but still more so the one at the chin, in order to prevent the fragments of the jaw from riding over each other, and the thongs are to be fastened at the vertex, and then a bandage is to be bound round the forehead, and a proper apparatus is to be put over all, to prevent the bandages from being displaced. The patient should lie upon the sound side of the jaw, not resting upon the jaw, but upon the head. He is to be kept on a spare diet for ten days, and then nourished without delay. If there be no inflammation during the first days, the jaw is consolidated in twenty days; for callus quickly forms in this, as in all the other porous bones, provided there be no sphacelus (exfoliation?). But much remains to be said on the sphacelus of bones in another place. This method of distention with glued substances is mild, of easy application, and is useful for many dislocations in many parts of the body. Those physicians who have not judgment combined with their dexterity, expose themselves in fractures of the jaws, as in other cases, for they apply a variety of bandages to a fractured jaw-bone, sometimes properly, and sometimes improperly. For all such bandaging of a fractured jawbone has a tendency rather to derange the bones connected with the fracture, than to bring them into their natural position.