Mouth Wide Open Shut ... lock jaw after a hard yawn

Student yawned so hard during lecture that she couldn’t close her mouth

Politics does not have a reputation for being the most fascinating of subjects.

But one teenager yawned so deeply during a class on the topic that her mouth got stuck wide open and she had to be taken to hospital.

Holly Thompson, 17, was studying for her government and politics A-level at the Northampton School for Girls when she dislocated her jaw and found herself unable to close it again.

Article found HERE By Claire Ellicott
  9th April 2011

Holly, from Kingsthorpe, Northampton, said: ‘I was so shocked, my expression probably said it all.

‘I nudged my friend to show her what had happened but I was so embarrassed.

‘When we realised we couldn’t close it, she had to tell the teacher.

‘All my classmates and teachers thought it was really funny, everyone burst out laughing. It was awful.’

Holly was taken to a school nurse who tried everything from putting a hot water bottle under her chin to using ice packs.

When she showed no sign of improvement, Holly was taken to Northampton General Hospital where her jaw was eventually freed by forcing 26 wooden splints in her mouth.

The unusual method, performed by Dr Ejiro Obakponovwe, opened the jaw enough to unlock it and Holly has since recovered.

The teenager, who is also studying for A-levels in Spanish, English language and psychology, said:

‘It was really bad at the hospital.

‘I had to sit in the waiting room with a scarf over my mouth so nobody could see what had happened.

‘It was really difficult to  communicate with doctors  as well.

‘I thought they were just going to give me some medicine, not put splints in there.’

In total, her jaw was stuck for five hours, and ached for a few hours afterwards too.

The episode was even captured by TV cameras for BBC Three series Bizarre ER, which screened the teenager’s discomfort last week.

Holly, who was 16 at the time of the incident in October, said: ‘My friends keep coming up to me and asking how my jaw is and saying I’m famous.

‘It’s all over YouTube. I was mortified at first, but I can see the funny side now.

‘The American TV presenter, Ryan Seacrest, tweeted it too, which is great – but I think I’d rather be famous for something else.’

Holly denied, however, that the class subject matter was what had prompted the yawn.

‘I suppose politics can be a bit boring sometimes, but I like it,’ she said.
Holly has since learned her lesson, however: ‘I don’t open my mouth as wide when I yawn now.’