FRACTURES OF THE JAW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24715, 18 September 1941, Page 3

FRACTURES OF THE JAW

REMARKABLE NEW TREATMENT SIR HAROLD GILLIES'S PART (0.C.) LONDON, Aug. 19. A remarkable new method of treating fractures of the jaw, which enables the patient to move' the part freely and painlessly within 24 hours of the fracture being set, is being used and developed at Government maxillofacial centres throughout the country. Leading dental surgeons say that this may prove to be the most notable development of dsntal surgery of this war. The new method of uniting fractures of the lower jaw was produced at Rooksdown House jaw unit, Basingstoke, by Sir Harold Gillies, the New Zealand plastic surgeon, and his staff, in conjunction with an American orthopaedic surgeon. Sir Harold was assisted by Mr Kelsey Fry, the dental surgeon. They are joint advisers to the Ministry of Health. The method involves the use of steel Dins, which are implanted in the jaw

on each side of the fracture. The two ends of the fracture are brought into position and held there by an ingenious arrangement of stainless steel bars and movable nuts. The process inflicts no pain on the patient, and obviates weeks of immobility, inconvenience, and discomfort.

This treatment is ussd particularly for joining a fracture at the back of the lower jaw where there are no teeth to which to attach ordinary splints. The work of maxillo-facial units under the direction of the Ministry of Health is so important that they formed \the main subject of discussion at the recent annual meeting of the British Dental Association at Reading. The new treatment of jaw fractures was demonstrated at the meeting, which was attended by many officers of the Army Dental Corps, who gained first-hand knowledge of this latest development of dental surgery.