1988 Volume 34 Issue 11 Pages 2515-2521
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of patients with maxillofacial trauma in conjunction with changes in social life, increases in the number of persons participating in sports and changes in traffic conditions. Among the patients examined at the Nippon Dental University Hospital, those with maxillofacial fractures treated in the First Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery were analyzed statistically.
The subjects of this study were 100 outpatients from January 1981 to December 1987, an average of 14.3 cases a year. When compared with the first year of the study, the number of cases in 1987 had increased by about 1.5-fold and the number increased every year.
In an investigation of frequencies according to age and sex, the two most common age groups by far were those in their teens and twenties, accounting for 39.0% and 32.0%, respectively. Males outnumbered females by three to one.
More than 70% of the patients came to the hospital within one week of receiving the injury, but there were cases of patients admitted to other hospitals for treatment of other parts of the body who did not come as outpatients until several weeks later.
The most common site of the fracture was the lower jaw in 92.0%, followed by the front teeth, the region from the molars to the angle of the mandible, and the articular process.
The causes of the fractures were sports related in most of the cases, accounting for 34.0%. According to figures during the 13 year period from 1955 until 1967 in this hospital the most common cause of such injuries was traffic accidents, which indicates that s change has occurred over the years.
