In this article we look at the three primary types of fractures: open, closed, and displaced fractures.

A fracture of the upper arm or humerus may heal uneventfully in several weeks, while a fracture in the forearm takes much longer. The femur, or thighbone, is the longest and strongest bone in the body and difficult to break without major trauma.

Types of Fractures

• Stable fracture. The broken ends of the bone line up and are barely out of place.
• Open, compound fracture. The skin may be pierced by the bone or by a blow that breaks the skin at the time of the fracture.
• Transverse fracture.
• Oblique fracture.
• Comminuted fracture.

Closed fracture – The skin remains unbroken. Displaced fracture – The bone fragments on each side of the break aren’t aligned, which may require surgery for complete healing. Comminuted fracture – The bone is broken into pieces, which may require surgery for complete healing.

A fracture and a break are actually one and the same. “There’s no difference between these two things,” he says. “A fracture means the cracking or breaking of a hard object. One is not worse than the other when it comes to breaking bones.”

Here’s a look at some of the bones that hurt the most to break:

• 1) Femur. The femur is the longest and strongest bone in the body.
• 2) Tailbone. You could probably imagine that this injury is highly painful.
• 3) Ribs. Breaking your ribs can be terribly distressing and quite painful.
• 4) Clavicle.

When a bone fracture is untreated, it can result in either a nonunion or a delayed union. In the former case, the bone doesn’t heal at all, which means that it will remain broken. As a result, swelling, tenderness, and pain will continue to worsen over time.

Other times, your body may be in shock so you don’t feel anything at all–at first. But usually a broken bone means a deep, intense ache. And depending on the break, you may feel sharp pain, too.

Doctors can usually recognize most fractures by examining the injury and taking X-rays. Sometimes an X-ray will not show a fracture. This is especially common with some wrist fractures, hip fractures (especially in older people), and stress fractures.

Any fracture can cause all or some of these types of pain to occur. For example, immediately after a bone breaks you might experience acute pain, followed by sub-acute pain while your bone heals, but you may not have any chronic pain.

Your doctor may recommend that you use crutches to keep weight off an injured foot or leg. You can also wear protective footwear or a cast. Because it usually takes up to six to eight weeks to completely heal from a hairline fracture, it’s important to modify your activities during that time.

There are two types of fracture healing – indirect (secondary) and direct healing (primary). Direct healing occurs when the bony fragments are fixed together with compression.

How Long Does a Fracture Take to Heal? Most fractures heal in 6-8 weeks, but this varies tremendously from bone to bone and in each person based on many of the factors discussed above. Hand and wrist fractures often heal in 4-6 weeks whereas a tibia fracture may take 20 weeks or more.

Bone stress injuries occur because of an unfamiliar increase in physical activity and is related to overuse, under recovery and several considerations that result in the bone not being able to keep up with the required adaptations. A fracture can result and this will cause pain at night time.

Vitamin C. Collagen is a protein that’s an important building block for bone. Vitamin C helps your body make collagen, which helps your bone fracture heal.