Common Misconceptions

Brittney Doane

Professor Riis

ECN1101

23 April 2018

The Common Misconceptions About Embalmers and How They’re Wrong

We as people try to avoid the unpleasant things we witness in society, and from these observations it looks like people aren’t away of just how busy embalmers can be. This lack of understanding can also cause misconceptions to be created. The life of an embalmer busy and always moving, yet hardly anyone knows exactly what they do, and I plan on rectifying that. For this essay I will tell you about three of the weirdest misconceptions that I have come across, I will show you how these misconceptions are wrong by telling you how things are properly done. Let me introduce you to the world of embalming, and show you that the misconceptions

everyone thinks of is wrong.
The first misconception I would like to tell you about is that embalmers will sew your lips shut. This fallacy was created the same way that all the others were, by miss information provided by movies whether they horror movies or not. However, there is some truth behind this oddity. When you are alive there are muscle that are constantly in use even if we don’t realize that we are using them. The same holds true for the jaw, when we are trying to keep our mouths closed we are using muscles. “Muscles are keeping your jaw closed” (Mort). When you die those muscles become slack and without you actually alive, they will never tighten. This is where this procedure come in, an embalmer will talk a small sharp needle or a small metal piece to either anchor in thread or wire. Once inserted into the tissue under the lips, the embalmer will repeat the process on the lower jaw as well. After all of the thread has been anchored to their positions, the embalmer will tie the four individual pieces of thread together keeping the mouth tightly secured. If a wire is used, they will use a tool called a needle injector. This device pushed a piece of the wire into the upper and lower parts of the jaw before being tied together. Using the needle injector is tough and need a precise hand. If an embalmer misses the mark, the gums under the lips could be messed up. Once the mouth has been wired shut, the embalmer will place cotton in the back of the throat and throughout the mouth. After the cotton has been placed the embalmers are free to manipulate the mouth and other facial expressions.
The second misconception that I wanted to tell you about is that people believe that the dead can sit straight up.

This is an untruth because the muscles required for this bodily function are in the same state as the muscles used in the jaw, earlier I mentioned that when a person is alive their muscles are working together under the orders of your brain which is sending signals through nerves that travel the entire body. When a living person tries to sit up, their abdominal muscles will tighten in order to bring the body into an upright position. When a person dies, the muscles slacken. The likelihood of a person sitting up after death is about the same as a person paralyzed standing up on command, it’s simply impossible. The reason that I say this is because, muscles don’t just need subconscious messages from the brain, they also need energy to relax. Without the renewal of energy the muscles will become stiff and hardened. This is the basis behind rigor mortis, not the recipe to allow a dead person to suddenly jump up right into a ninety degree angle. Now, that’s not to say that the body will not twitch or release gas that builds after death. The increase in gas may cause the body to emit whistles, pops, and other odd noises. However, the twitches that may occur can sometimes happen when the brain or heart release the last few signals which usually happens right after

death.