mandibular fracture

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Bunsen Honeydew

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anyone have any idea which nerve is most commonly affected in jaw fractures?

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i think its the trigeminal that inervates teeth sensation, not sure about skin and mucosa but when Bo got punched in the face and headbutted i'm pretty sure he had more love for Tila than that blonde skank hoe....
 
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And if you were taking the COMLEX (which is ripe with ridiculous anatomy), they'd want to know what nerves specifically - stupid and pointless, I know.

Inferior alveolar for the teeth, mental for the lip/chin, and lingual for the tongue. When will the comlex realize I'm going to be a doctor, not a dentist.
 
whats the deal with that question? During my A&E (ER) rotation I saw a bunch of these lesions on a Friday night after people being punched. They definitely don't wait to go to the dentist, probably end up seeing a max-fax surgeon.
 
It is CN V3 (the mandibular branch of the Trigeminal which gives rise to the inferior alveolar nerve). The terminal branch of this nerve is the mental nerve - which exits at the mental foramen. Fractures anterior to the mental foramen (or at the foramen) should only produce paresthesia of the gingiva and lip to the midline anterior to the site of the fracture. Most fractures are mandibular body fractures - and thus produce paresthesia throughout the entire distribution of CN V3 - inferior alveolar branch, which is all of the teeth on that side and gingiva and the lip to the midline. This is also a common paresthesia produced by complications of 3rd molar extraction.

The lingual nerve is normally not involed in mandible fractures.
 
I'm sorry I have to disagree with the most common there - most common is certainly not mandibular body, its the posterior insertion of the mandible when people hit there chins on the floor from a fall.
 
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