Firm Jaw

Surgeons all over the U. S. agree that 66-year-old Dr. William Wayne Babcock of Philadelphia's Temple University can take it on the chin. Four years ago he violated medical taboo, trusted no one more than himself to operate on his wife. When his young son died, with steady hand Professor Babcock performed the autopsy. Last week Dental Survey described a striking operation which Dr. Babcock originated for pushing forward a receding lower jaw, giving a patient a firmer looking profile than he was born with.

He cut through the arch formed by the cheek bone and the temporal bone (at the side of the skull), pushed the upper end of the jaw forward with a small steel bar, and wedged a block of cartilage, which he had cut from the ribs, in front of the ear. The block served as an extension of the jaw bone, soon grew firm and strong, advanced the lower jaw four-fifths of an inch (see cut). The new position of the jaw naturally changed the bite of the patient, but it did not take him long to get used to it. "There was very little post-operative reaction or discomfort," said the Survey. "The patient masticated food at the end of the fourth day and was discharged six days later."

Before such an operation is performed casts of the jaws should be taken, and the operation plotted on the models, because each receding jaw permits a different maximum amount of advancement.

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