JAW DYSFUNCTION AFTER NEUROSURGERY [ back to What's New ]
Persons who develop a large, compressive epidural or subdural hematoma after head trauma must have neurosurgery to evacuate the blood clot before irreversible brain damage or death occurs. The surgery involves cutting a horseshoe shaped flap in the skull directly over the clot, allowing the clot to ooze out and gently suctioning any residual blood. When the clot is located under the temporal bone at the side of the head, the neurosurgeon will cut through the large temporalis muscle to gain access to the underlying bone. Although this seems a trivial matter to the surgeon who is saving the patient's life, patients are rarely told to expect jaw pain while chewing advised to get physical therapy for their jaw to break up scar tissue and mobilise the jaw.