A young woman was struck in the side of her face with a projectile from her boy friend's lawn mower, probably a small rock or piece of metal. The object entered the right infratemporal fossa at a point just inferior to the zygomatic arch - about 3cm anterior to the external auditory meatus. It passed between the condyle and coronoid process of the mandible, through the mandibular notch, crossed in a horizontal plane and came to lie against bone at the supermedial angle of the fossa (at the junction of the greater wing with the lateral pterygoid plate of the sphenoid bone). The patient was taken to the hospital in a conscious state with minimal bleeding from the wound. The stone was located radiographically and removed by an uncomplicated surgical procedure. The wound healed cleanly and left a very insignificant scar. Later neurological tests revealed the patient was lacking normal function of the right side of the jaw. There was a lack of tension in the temporomandibular joint and there was reduced or absent electromyographic potentials in the medial and lateral pterygoid muscles, and the temporalis and masseter. There was a sensory loss in the skin and mucous membrane of the cheek. It also effected the lower lip and chin, gums, as well as a portion of the auricle and the temporal area, the anterior two thirds of the tongue, and the lower teeth of the entire right side. In addition, the mylohyoid muscle and the anterior belly of the digastric were paralyzed on the affected side.
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