Post by The Tax Returns Are in Kenya on Aug 15, 2015 15:17:32 GMT -5
Well (I guess) an actual doctor weighing in settles the question of whether Geno can start Week 1 of the regular season (answer: no). Probably needs to take more symphytum.
Maybe it's a more serious break than the ones hockey players don't even leave games for? Naaaaaah.
So: Will that affect the six-to-10-week timetable for Smith's return? No, according to Dr. James Gladstone, the co-chief of sports medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
To be clear: Gladstone did not evaluate Smith personally. But he agreed to offer his professional opinion to NJ Advance Media over the phone based on his understanding of what's known about the nature of Smith's injury.
"In some respects, needing plate and screws could indicate that the injury is worse" than if Smith had needed to have his jaw wired shut, Gladstone said. "There are many fragments of bone that have to be pieced back together. That could be done better with plates and screws than with the wiring."
Gladstone said the plates and screws were likely used because Smith, the Jets' quarterback, had more than one break in his jaw, which squares with a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter that said Smith's jaw had been broken in two places thanks to a punch from then-teammate IK Enemkpali.
"By using the plate and screws, you're aligning it straight and putting the pieces back together sort of like jigsaw puzzle, which putting a cast on or wiring the jaw shut can't do," Gladstone said.
PLUS: What getting punched by a teammate says about Geno Smith
Plates and screws also ensures "as perfect an alignment as possible" with the bones, Gladstone said.
None of this, however, will likely affect the initial timetable of six to 10 weeks Smith was given Tuesday, the day of the fateful punch. The bones still have to heal.
"That's a biologic process," Gladstone said. "That takes the same amount of time, whether you're just holding things in place with the wire, or whether you have it in place with the plate and screws. The timetable doesn't change."
To be clear: Gladstone did not evaluate Smith personally. But he agreed to offer his professional opinion to NJ Advance Media over the phone based on his understanding of what's known about the nature of Smith's injury.
"In some respects, needing plate and screws could indicate that the injury is worse" than if Smith had needed to have his jaw wired shut, Gladstone said. "There are many fragments of bone that have to be pieced back together. That could be done better with plates and screws than with the wiring."
Gladstone said the plates and screws were likely used because Smith, the Jets' quarterback, had more than one break in his jaw, which squares with a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter that said Smith's jaw had been broken in two places thanks to a punch from then-teammate IK Enemkpali.
"By using the plate and screws, you're aligning it straight and putting the pieces back together sort of like jigsaw puzzle, which putting a cast on or wiring the jaw shut can't do," Gladstone said.
PLUS: What getting punched by a teammate says about Geno Smith
Plates and screws also ensures "as perfect an alignment as possible" with the bones, Gladstone said.
None of this, however, will likely affect the initial timetable of six to 10 weeks Smith was given Tuesday, the day of the fateful punch. The bones still have to heal.
"That's a biologic process," Gladstone said. "That takes the same amount of time, whether you're just holding things in place with the wire, or whether you have it in place with the plate and screws. The timetable doesn't change."
