ANIMAL DENTISTRY. 213 



use of the jaw. Appliances to immobolize the fracture are 

 never satisfactorily retained, and prove of little service. 

 When abscesses form their contents are evacuated and the 

 wound searched for comminuted segments. The loose teeth 

 must be extracted. 



In fracture of both rami near the incisor teeth, in small 

 animals amputation can be successfully performed. 



Prognosis — In young animals even the severe commi- 

 nuted fractures may reunite by an extensive deposit of new 

 bone, and the patient make a rather tardy recovery with con- 

 siderable permanent tumefaction of the jaw. In old animals 

 the bad fracture is always fatal. Fractures of one ramus 

 near the neck is not serious and will reunite with but little 

 deformity and only slight interference with the general 

 health. Fractures without dental complication are less seri- 

 ous than those involving the molar teeth. 



FRACTURES OF THE PREMAXILLA AND SU- 

 PERIOR MAXILLA. 



Although the premaxilla is an exposed bone, its fracture 

 is remarkably rare. The superior branch is occasionally 

 fractured from a kick, and the body from a fall upon the 

 incisor teeth. The superior maxillary is frequently frac- 

 tured conjointly with the other facial bones as a result of 

 kicks or other of the usual forms of violence. Owing to 

 the fixed articulations of these bones fractures recover 

 promptly and without much deformity. Crushing of the 

 maxillary spine leaves a somewhat unsightly blemish, but 

 otherwise these lesions are not serious. 



DISLOCATION OF THE TEMPORO-MAXILLARY 

 ARTICULATION. 



Etiology — This dislocation is possible only in the car- 

 nivora. In the herbivora the arrangement of the condyle and 



