THE BROKEN FACE

Then vs Now · Episode 3 · Trauma · Wed 28 Oct 2026

Your Jaw Is Broken

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On the night Lincoln was shot, his Secretary of State lay in bed with a broken jaw — and a brace may have saved his life. From an Egyptian papyrus that called a broken jaw "an ailment not to be treated", to Hippocrates, the dentists who wired jaws shut, and the titanium plates and 3D-planned eye-socket meshes surgeons use today.

Every Then vs Now episode ends with what a surgeon would do today.

Chapters

  1. 0:00The night Lincoln was shot
  2. 0:58The oldest surgical text
  3. 1:35Hippocrates: the teeth as the guide
  4. 2:33Then came the dentists
  5. 3:31Wired shut
  6. 4:24War breaks faces
  7. 5:04Six weeks with your jaw wired
  8. 5:33Quick pause: the quiz
  9. 6:06The accident that changed everything
  10. 7:14What has changed?
  11. 7:35Where the jaw breaks
  12. 8:43Le Fort, the cheekbone and the eye socket
  13. 9:34Teeth and the bone that holds them
  14. 10:01Step one: the reduction
  15. 10:59Step two: the plate
  16. 12:34Step three: check it
  17. 13:09The worst case: panfacial fractures
  18. 14:42Then vs Now: who breaks their face today
  19. 16:283,500 years later
  20. 16:50Next episode

Read more

Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Disclosure

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's KillerJames L. SwansonView on Amazon.ca →
Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable ManWalter StahrView on Amazon.ca →
The FacemakerLindsey FitzharrisView on Amazon.ca →
Faces from the FrontAndrew BamjiView on Amazon.ca →

Sources

Facts were checked against multiple sources. Key references (full list in the pinned comment on YouTube):

Some visuals are illustrations or reconstructions. For education only — not medical or legal advice.