A 5‐year data report of traumatic dental injuries in children and adolescents from a major dental trauma center in Greece

Abstract

Background/Aim Prevalence and demographic characteristics of traumatic dental injuries (TDI) differ in different countries. The aim of this retrospective study was to assess TDI in primary and permanent teeth among children and adolescents who presented to the Department of Paediatric Dentistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, during the last 5 years. Material and Methods Dental records of 236 new patients who presented with dento‐alveolar trauma to the Postgraduate Dental Clinic from 1/1/2014 to 31/12/2019 were reviewed. Data recorded were gender, age, month of the year the injury occurred, type of trauma, and number of traumatized teeth. Injuries were classified as fracture, luxation, or combination injuries. Descriptive statistics, chi‐squared (x2), and Fisher's exact tests were used to evaluate the results. Level of significance was set at 5%. Results The age of the patients ranged from 1 to 18 years old, with a mean of 8.63 years (SD: 3.52). There were 395 anterior traumatized teeth and 2 cases with traumatized posterior teeth. Children suffered trauma more often at the ages of 5 years, 7 years, and 11 years. In this cohort, 60% were boys who had a higher chance of having trauma than girls (odds ratio = 1.418 95% CI = 0.724, 2.777). Most TDI occurred in March and May, followed by June and February, and most traumatized teeth were permanent (80%). Maxillary central incisors in both dentitions were injured most often and significantly more compared to lateral incisors (p < 0 .01). The most common type of injury was a fracture in the permanent dentition (60%) and luxation injuries (69%) in the primary dentition. Conclusions Traumatic dental injuries in this cohort occurred mostly in spring, affected boys more than girls, permanent teeth more than primary teeth, maxillary incisors more than mandibular incisors, and central incisors more than lateral incisors, while children aged 5, 7, and 11 years old had the most injuries.

Prevalence and patterns of traumatic dental injuries in primary teeth: a 3-year retrospective overview study in Vienna

“…Evaluating the pattern of affected teeth, the results show that upper central incisors were the most frequently injured teeth (73.5%). This is coherent with international data [ 1 , 18 , 28 ]. With 83.3%, De Amorim et al observed a slightly higher value in a specialized pediatric practice in Brasil from 1993 to 2008 [ 29 ].…”

“…In the presented study, the prevalence of dental trauma in deciduous teeth was significantly higher in boys compared to girls (m:f = 1:1.45, p = 0.048). This correlates with demographic evaluations of previous literature [ 18 , 22 ]. Compared to gender ratio of TDIs in the permanent dentition, however, the difference between male and female patients is less prominent [ 14 ].…”

“…Based on the analysis of the presented data, dislocations were more prevalent than fractures or combined injuries. This confirms international trends of dislocations being the most common injury type in deciduous teeth due to the elasticity of alveolar bone and lower crown-root-relation at a younger age [14,18]. With 74% of TDIs being dislocations, the percentage is slightly higher compared to the results of a recently published data report by Agouropoulos et al who observed luxation injuries in 69% of cases in the primary dentition [18].…”

“…This confirms international trends of dislocations being the most common injury type in deciduous teeth due to the elasticity of alveolar bone and lower crown-root-relation at a younger age [14,18]. With 74% of TDIs being dislocations, the percentage is slightly higher compared to the results of a recently published data report by Agouropoulos et al who observed luxation injuries in 69% of cases in the primary dentition [18]. In the presented study, subluxations were the most frequent subtype of dislocation injuries (28.5%).…”

“…The presented data confirms this assumption as the frequencies of TDI occurrence only show minimal variations in regard to the day of week. As other recent studies have shown similar results, the relative likelihood of a TDI occurrence being higher from May to November may be linked to the fact that outdoor activities entailing higher risks of falling accidents increase in spring and summer [18,19]. Oldin et al [20] showed that the frequencies of different causes for TDI vary with age.…”