A mandibular fracture is similar to a bone fracture in any body part. The bone becomes stressed, usually from excessive force, and breaks under that pressure. Jaw fracture symptoms you might experience include:
- Pain, swelling, redness, and increased heat in the jaw or ear area
- Difficulties in speaking, chewing, and breathing
- Numbness or bruising of your face and neck
- Loose teeth or change in teeth alignment
- Bleeding from the mouth
- Drooling and the inability to close the mouth may occur.
Although many patients with a jawbone fracture often have temporary problems of eating (chewing) and talking, these complications usually resolve over time (days to weeks) with no further complications with appropriate treatment.
However, some patients may suffer more immediate complications of airway blocking, bleeding, and aspiration of food, blood, or fluid into the lungs that can be life-threatening.
Some people may develop infections of the jaw or face, malocclusion (misaligned) teeth, or both, especially if the fracture is unstable and treatment is delayed or not appropriate. Poor healing of some fractures may lead to TMJ dislocation. There can be also be instances of nerve paresthesia or complete numbness due to nerve damage during trauma.
Although a jawbone fracture may occur from many pathological causes (for example, cancer, bone loss through infections), the large majority of fractures occur from the following:
- Motor vehicle accidents
- Assaults (facial trauma)
- Sports-related injuries (boxing, football)
- Falls (face-first falls)
- The majority of mandibular (jawbone) fractures occur in young adult males (20-30 years of age), with most occurring in the body, condyle, and angle areas of the jawbone.
Because the most common causes of jaw fractures are the result of motor vehicle accidents and assaults, the best prevention is to drive carefully and choose your friends wisely.
A more realistic step that can be taken is wearing protective devices in many types of sporting activities. In addition, those patients who have medical conditions that may lead to falls need to treat those conditions and follow individual recommendations to prevent falls.
Patients with lower bone density due to physiological, endocrinological and pathological causes, are at higher risk of jaw fractures than healthy population.
