300px, Jennings gag
In the context of
surgery
Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...
or
dental surgery, a gag is a device used to hold the
patient's
mouth
In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...
open when working in the
oral cavity, or to force the mouth open when it cannot open naturally because of forward
dislocation of the jaw joint's intraarticular cartilage pad. Applications for medical gags include
oral surgery and
airway management
Airway management includes a set of maneuvers and medical procedures performed to prevent and relieve airway obstruction. This ensures an open pathway for gas exchange between a patient's lungs and the atmosphere. This is accomplished by either cl ...
. Gag designs, like other medical instrument designs, are often named after their inventors. Common examples of medical gags include the Jennings, Whitehead, and Hallam gags.
Types
*Whitehead gag: invented in 1877 by
Walter Whitehead (1840-1913), a surgeon in
Manchester,
England,
consists of two hinged metal frames that wrap around the front of the patient's head and which have sections bent to fit between the front teeth. When spread apart, the frames separate the jaws, holding the mouth open. The desired degree of separation is set and maintained by a
ratchet
Ratchet may refer to:
Devices
* Ratchet (device), a mechanical device that allows movement in only one direction
* Ratchet, metonomic name for a socket wrench incorporating a ratcheting device
* Ratchet (instrument), a music instrument and a ...
mechanism on each side of the frame.
*Jennings gag: they are very similar, but there is a ratchet on only one side.
Non-medical uses
These type of gags are also used in sexual
fetish or
bondage
Bondage may refer to:
Restraints
*Physical restraints
**Bondage (BDSM), use of restraint for erotic stimulation
***Self-bondage, use of restraints on oneself for erotic pleasure
Social and economic practices
*Serfdom, feudal enslavement of peasan ...
play. See
Gag (BDSM)#Medical.
See also
*
Medical device
*
Mouth prop
*
Instruments used in general surgery
References
External links
Mouth gags index pagefrom the ''Virtual Museum of Equipment for Airway Management'' at the Austrian Difficult Airway/Intubation Registry
{{Authority control
Surgical instruments
