I decided to research mandible fractures for this blog. Mandible fractures occur mostly from trauma, like an assault or motor vehicle accident.
When I was still an x-ray student, I worked as a tech aid in the CT department a lot. One weekend when I was working, a 17 year old guy was brought in by his father for jaw pain. This guy had gotten in a fight at a party the night before. The exam was a CT Facial bones and head and the tech doing the exam did reconstruction images. You could clearly see three complete fractures of the mandible-two on one side of the body and one on the other. The only thing that was holding this patient's jaw together was the fact that he had braces. This patient then had to go to a plastic surgeon to have surgery.
This is a CT reconstruction image of the facial bones that shows a mandible fracture. There is also a fracture of the maxilla with displacement of the teeth.