Clark had his teeth destroyed during his fight with Ion Cutelaba at UFC Vegas 37.
Devin Clark has shared an update on his teeth following his loss to Ion Cutelaba at UFC Vegas 37.
Clark and Cutelaba met in the co-main event of the evening, and the ‘Hulk’ dominated the ‘Brown Bear’ en route to a unanimous decision win. The fight was almost stopped before the judges were needed, though. Cutelaba delivered two brutal knees to the jaw of Clark that saw his bottom three teeth out of place and separated from the rest of his teeth. He continued to fight after speaking with the cageside physician and his corner, but still lost to Cutelaba despite his best efforts.
Clark was immediately taken to a local hospital afterwards and had his teeth worked on. He uploaded a video to his Instagram stories to show what was done and explained that his teeth were reset with temporary braces.
“They were able to pull the teeth back kind of into place temporarily now,” said Clark (video provided by Amy Kaplan of FanSided). “Got temporary braces. A little better. Doing alright, though. Thank you all for your love and support.”
Devin Clark injury update pic.twitter.com/FhPHQ7fRx3
— Amy Kaplan (@PhotoAmy33) September 19, 2021
Although his teeth were reset, Clark may need more extensive work done. Orthopedic sports surgeon and ringside physician Dr. David Abbasi explained what that could look like for the 31-year-old, who he believed may have suffered either a segmental fracture or a dentoalveolar fracture.
“Depending on which one of those two fractures is going on, the options for these oral surgeons is going to be either split the teeth in place to where it came from,” said Abbasi. “If you can hold it in the correct position, it can heal that way. If it continues to get out of place, the other thing to do is fix it there with plates and screws. That would be an operation where they would peel back the lip, make an incision in there, access the mandible bone and then bring the bone back to where it belongs. Fix it there with plates and screws so it doesn’t move anymore and then bring that lip back up and close it up.”
Clark now faces a significant amount of time away from the Octagon as he recovers from his injury.