Can My Old Zygomatic Arch Fracture Be Fixed?

Q: Dr. Eppley, so about 2-3 years ago I was dating this guy and very long story short he punched me in the face and fractured my left cheekbone. I never got a surgeon to look at it because honestly I’m super broke. I mean I have money for small payments but I definitely don’t have thousands to spend. I guess I’m really wondering how much exactly is costs? It’s just been bothering me a lot recently and if I can save up the money to come to you to get it fixed I would love that. So how much would I be looking at do you think? Also idk if you can tell in the picture but I tried to point out where it was fractured. Sometimes my jaw gets stuck or pops weird and honestly I’m just really self conscious about it and I wanna put that part of my life behind me.

A: Thank you for your inquiry and sending your picture. What you have is the classic zygomatic arch fracture, a unique but well known type of cheekbone fracture. This is where the arch of the bone is broken and the two ends stick inward (like a bridge pushed inward at the middle of its span), creating an external contour depression over the arch as well as the ends of the broken bone sticking into the masseter muscle. (which is why your jaw gets stuck when trying to open) Int the treatment of acute zygomatic arch fractures the displaced bone is pushed back outward through a minimal invasive surgery. (Gilles approach) For a long term displaced zygomatic arch fracture this would probably not be successful in keeping the bone pushed back into place but it may get the bone stuck into the muscle out of the way improving the jaw sticking. For the contour deformity I would then just injection fat graft it at the same time.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana