Dental injuries among children and adolescents aged 1–15 years attending to public hospital in Temuco, Chile

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was carried out in children and adolescents of both sexes, aged 1-15 years that sought dental emergency attention to the Regional Hospital between 2004 and 2007 in Temuco, Chile. The purpose of this study was to identify the aetiology, types of traumatic dental injuries in primary and permanent dentitions, sex and age distributions, accident location; and time elapsed before emergency treatment in children and adolescents. The sample consisted of 359 patients with 145 primary teeth and 525 permanent teeth affected by dental trauma. The results showed a 2:1 male:female ratio distribution (242/117) with a mean age of 8.4 years. The 7- to 12-year-old group had the highest frequency of dental injuries (66.6%). Unspecific accidental falls were the main cause of injury to primary and permanent dentition (51.8%), followed by striking teeth against objects (15.6%) and bike accidents (13.9%). In primary dentition the most common diagnosis were subluxation (38.6%) and avulsion (16.6%), whereas in permanent dentition was uncomplicated crown fracture (32.9%). A high proportion of the patients received their first emergency attention 24 h after the accident (32.6%). This study revealed a high frequency (37.9%) in 1-15 aged population that sought emergency attention by dental trauma in the period of time study. A large proportion of children with dental trauma received delayed first emergency care, even 24 h after the accident. Considering the high frequency of traumatic dental injuries in 1-15 aged population and the high percentage of delayed emergency attention is necessary to develop effective educational campaigns in regard to causes, prevention and emergency management of traumatic dental injuries, especially in deprived areas. In conclusion, traumatic dental injury may be considered as a serious dental public health problem especially in children of deprived areas.

Prevalence, Type and Etiology of Dental and Soft Tissue Injuries in Children in Croatia

“…A lack of motor coordination 25,26 on walking and running is the main reason for TDI in preschool children, whereas in early school-age children, TDIs are most likely due to increased independence at school, playgrounds and sports 4,27,28 . In agreement with previous studies [18][19][20]29,30 , this study showed that TDI commonly involved maxillary incisors. Th is fi nding may be explained by the fact that these teeth may have inadequate lip coverage and frequently protrude 30 .…”

“…In contrast, school-aged boys are more prone to risky behavior, a lack of discipline, fi ghting and sports than school-aged girls. Th e fi ndings of our study indicated that injuries occurred most often in children aged 7-12, supporting the fi ndings of other authors 8,18,22 . Th e peak of injuries to primary teeth occurs at the age of 2 and at the age of 9 for permanent teeth.…”

“…Consistent with the results of other studies, the most frequent cause of trauma was fall in both genders and in both primary and permanent teeth 17,20,30,38 . Regarding the location of TDIs, this study found that most injuries occurred at home in children aged 1-6 and at school in children aged 7-12, which is similar to previous studies 18,25,39 . Th e group of children aged 13-16 sustained TDIs during their free time, in contrast to similar studies 18 .…”

“…Th is fi nding can be explained by the periodontal ligament elasticity and alveolar bone resilience 26,30 . In permanent teeth, enamel-dentin fractures without pulp exposure were the most frequent type of injury, which is similar to other studies 12,15,[18][19][20]33 , but contrary to a group of studies that found enamel fracture to be the most frequent type of hard dental tissue injury [34][35][36][37] . In this study, there was a statistically signifi cant relationship between age, gender, location, and cause of injury (p<0.05).…”

“…Although Glendor 11 states that there is a trend toward reduced gender diff erences in the distribution of trauma, as confi rmed by other studies 16,17 , our study belongs to the group of studies [18][19][20] demonstrating that gender diff erences persist in favor of males (1.5:1). However, in this study, preschool girls showed higher rates of TDI than boys, which is in agreement with Carvalho et al 21 .…”