The aver­age per­son will suf­fer two bro­ken bones dur­ing their life­time. While bones are strong, if the force applied is too strong or too sud­den, they can break like a dry stick. Bro­ken bones can be caused by any sud­den force. Car acci­dents, motor­cy­cle acci­dents, truck acci­dents and job injuries are com­mon causes of bro­ken bones. Any sud­den force or trauma can cause a bro­ken bone.

Doc­tors call bro­ken bones “frac­tures”. There are dif­fer­ent types of frac­tures. There are sim­ple “hair­line” frac­tures (which is a thin crack in the bone) and there are com­plex “open” frac­tures (which are com­plete bone breaks that pro­trude out­side the skin).

Cat­e­gories of Fractures

The four main cat­e­gories of frac­tures are:

• dis­placed

• non-displaced

• open and

• closed

A non-displaced frac­ture is when the bone breaks but the bro­ken parts remain lined up with each other. A dis­placed frac­ture is when a bone breaks and the bro­ken parts no longer line up with each other. An open frac­ture is when the bro­ken bone pro­trudes through the skin, a closed frac­ture is when it does not.

Types of fractures

Doc­tors have names to describe dif­fer­ent types of frac­tures. Some of the more com­mon ones are:

• sin­gle frac­ture — when a bone is bro­ken in one place

• green­stick frac­ture — when the frac­ture is not all the way through the bone, just on one side.

• com­min­uted frac­ture — when the bone is crushed or bro­ken into more than one piece

• com­plete frac­ture — a bone that is bro­ken in two

• trans­verse frac­ture — a right angle fracture

• oblique frac­ture — a frac­ture with a sloped or curved pattern

• impacted frac­ture — when two bones frac­ture from being dri­ven into each other

How Seri­ous Is It?

The seri­ous­ness of a frac­ture depends on its loca­tion and the dam­age done to the sur­round­ing tis­sue. A more seri­ous frac­ture can sever (cut) impor­tant tis­sue, ten­dons, nerves and blood vesi­cles, pos­si­bly result­ing in an infec­tion to the bone or sur­round­ing tissue.

What Does a Frac­ture Feel Like?

Frac­tures are gen­er­ally painful. Many times they feel like a deep ache under the skin. Other times a frac­ture results in lit­tle to no pain. If you have received trauma, you need to have it checked out by a doc­tor whether it hurts or not.

How Long Does It Take To Heal?

Heal­ing time depends on the age and health of the patient. A healthy child may take only a few weeks to heal. The heal­ing process for an elderly per­son in poor health may take months.

What Can Be Done?

Treat­ment depends on the seri­ous­ness and loca­tion of the frac­ture. Some frac­tures may require lit­tle treat­ment, just care dur­ing the recov­ery process. Other, more seri­ous frac­tures may require surgery and pos­si­bly the instil­la­tion of plates, screws, and rods to get it work­ing prop­erly again.

If you sus­pect you may have received a frac­ture, con­tact your doc­tor imme­di­ately. If your frac­ture was caused either by neg­li­gence of another (car acci­dents, motor­cy­cle acci­dents, truck acci­dents, job injuries or other per­sonal injury), call The Mari­etta Geor­gia injury experts at the Keener Law Firm for a free con­fi­den­tial con­sul­ta­tion. The Keener Law Firm has over 20 years of help­ing ordi­nary peo­ple get justice.