In 2012, Jolanta Yeasky, then 58, slipped and hit her chin, breaking her lower jaw in two places. The surgeon who performed emergency surgery at her local hospital stabilized the fracture using a metal plate and 18 screws.<\/p>\n
Her repaired jaw, how- ever, was only about half-inch wide. As a result, Yeasky could no longer wear her lower dentures, leaving her unable to eat anything but soft foods while she waited for her jaw to heal.<\/p>\n
When Yeasky learned she\u2019d need additional surgery before she could be fitted for new dentures \u2013 and that her insurance \u201cdidn\u2019t work\u201d with the surgeon who\u2019d initially repaired her jaw \u2013 she began looking for a new provider. Her search led her to Cooper University Health Care\u2019s respected Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery\/ Facial Trauma Surgery<\/a> and Brian M. Smith, DMD<\/a>, Division Head of Oral and Maxillo- facial Surgery.<\/p>\n \u201cThe emergency surgery had restored the outline of Ms. Yeasky\u2019s jaw but not its function, since it was so small,\u201d Dr. Smith relates. Plus, her jaw had never fully healed, and it had shifted to one side.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is always to restore form and function,\u201d he continues. \u201cIf you have one without the other, you\u2019re not really going to get the result you want, as Ms. Yeasky\u2019s initial outcome demonstrated.\u201d In addition, he says, facial trauma isn\u2019t treated only during the acute phase. \u201cThere\u2019s a long-term aspect to it because it often involves temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction, loss of teeth and cosmetic issues,\u201d Dr. Smith says, noting that effective treatment requires an integrated, holistic approach. Cooper is South Jersey\u2019s only academic institution with the depth and breadth of oral-maxillofacial expertise to provide this comprehensive range of services (see sidebar), attracting patients from across the US.<\/p>\n In Yeasky\u2019s case, on January 30, 2014, Dr. Smith placed the frame of the cadaver mandible on the outside of her lower jaw, grafted bone taken from her iliac crest to the cadaver mandible, then injected bone growth factor between the two. The result: her jaw is now three inches wide \u2013 and symmetrical.<\/p>\n \u201cI am healing and I definitely see a big difference,\u201d she says. \u201cI look at my X-rays and it\u2019s amazing. And I\u2019m not in pain.\u201d<\/p>\n A nurse herself, Yeasky gives high marks to Dr. Smith and the entire team of surgeons, dentists and nurses who have cared for her at Cooper. \u201cI\u2019ve never had such a great experience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n It will take six to nine months for the bone of her lower jaw to be strong enough for dental implants, for which Yeasky will undergo surgery in the fall. She will get upper implants sooner.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing I\u2019ll do when I get my new teeth top and bottom is eat salad,\u201d Yeasky adds. \u201cThen I\u2019ll go back and show Dr. Smith my smile.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2012, Jolanta Yeasky, then 58, slipped and hit her chin, breaking her lower jaw in two places. The surgeon who performed emergency surgery at her local hospital stabilized the fracture using a metal plate and 18 screws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[141,142],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-dzarnosky","4":"has-excerpt","5":"post-1298","7":"format-standard","8":"category-featured","9":"post_tag-division-of-oral-and-maxillofacial-surgery-facial-trauma-surgery","10":"post_tag-jaw"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1585,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cooperhealth.org\/sjmedicalreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}