Guidelines for dental radiography immediately after a dento‐alveolar trauma, a systematic literature review

Abstract

– The objective with this study was to search for and to analyze the presence of scientific papers, guidelines, and recommendations in dental literature regarding which radiographs should be prescribed after a dento‐alveolar trauma. We know from earlier that guidelines and recommendations are available in general in dental traumatology. The International Association of Dental Traumatology (IADT) has earlier developed guidelines for the management of dental trauma cases in general. There are also recommendations about useful intraoral radiographic methods when caries and periodontal disease are studied. An additional objective was to provide some guidelines for general practitioners about the most accurate radiographic examination immediately after a dento‐alveolar trauma using intraoral radiographs or a common extraoral imaging method. Because radiographs are an important diagnostic tool for establishing a correct differential diagnosis after a trauma, radiographic guidelines and recommendations are of importance to be able to start the correct treatment. PubMed Central, Cochrane and World Wide Web were searched and the identified existing guidelines for different intraoral radiographic methods in dentistry were analyzed and found to be very few. Those that were identified were in general not so detailed and specific. In conclusion, we found an explicit need for more detailed guidelines regarding which intraoral and other dental radiographs should be prescribed initially in dental traumatology.

Remote diagnosis of traumatic dental injuries using digital photographs captured via a mobile phone

“…It must be considered that the present study did not feature any cases of root or alveolar fractures. Radiographic examination is considered necessary for the diagnosis of these TDI categories, and the lack of these cases probably increased the mean levels of interexaminer agreement in the current study. The possibility of sharing radiographic images, which might aid the remote diagnosis of these traumas, must also be considered …”

“…Radiographic analysis is always recommended in TDI cases, especially in cases of root and alveolar fractures, in which a clinical examination and diagnosis have limitations. Even so, a clinical evaluation is a necessary starting point as it determines the most adequate therapeutic technique and indicates which complementary radiographic examinations would be appropriate . Unfortunately, ideal conditions for the radiographic imaging of TDIs are not always available.…”

Diagnosis of acute dental trauma: the importance of standardized documentation: a review

“…Figure illustrates how multiple radiographs at differing angulation can disclose lateral luxation. Many authors advocate the use of multiple films at different angulations to best identify intra‐alveolar root fractures , and indeed, this is the current IADT recommendation. Molina et al.…”

“…Kullman and Al Sane in a systematic review in 2012 reported a lack of evidence‐based research on radiographic methods although there was support for the current recommendations in the IADT guidelines. A PubMed search using the same search words for articles published since 2012 revealed no papers with specific recommendations on guidelines, while a number of articles advocated judicious use of CBCT when considered clinically appropriate .…”

“…Figure 2 illustrates how multiple radiographs at differing angulation can disclose lateral luxation. Many authors advocate the use of multiple films at different angulations to best identify intra-alveolar root fractures (33,34), and indeed, this is the current IADT recommendation. Molina et al (35) advised multiple films for teeth with crown fractures, as these were twice as likely to have root fractures as those without crown fractures (35).…”