A practical in which they let me handle a hacksaw...

Today, Dr. Jaws had us performing a hemimandibular-ectomy, also known as removing half half the lower jaw. Pretty brutal stuff! Less delicate than our first 2 dissections...literally, we carved off muscles of the head.

At A&M, the cadaver head was cut in half with a bandsaw! Crazy, but a great view of the inside the dog's head. However, at dick vet, they do things a little differently...no bandsaw :( but a hacksaw was employed! Probably a good thing, the youngins were not expected to handle power tools. Haha! Anywho, the two halves of the mandible join at the front of the mouth forming the mandibular symphasis. After carving out the muscles, I had to saw through this ossification (bony joint) then remove the jaw. Underneath the jawline, the muscles of the tongue are clearly visible. And I had no idea what they were!! It was nice to have think and learn something new.