Clinical investigation on external dental fistula

Abstract

A clinical investigation was done on the external dental fistulae from twenty-six patients who had visited our OPD for the past twelve years. The age distribution was equally spread over all decades, and there was a slight female predominance. The duration from the recognition of the onset till the first visit in our OPD tended to be relatively long, the longest was 4 years and the shortest a few days. Many other departments, such as dermatology, surgery, ENT, or internal medicine, had been asked before the patients visited our OPD. The pathogenic teeth were observed more in the mandibular region than the maxillary region, especially the mandibular molars and canines. Cheek area was the commonest site of external dental fistula. The clinical courses had good result with not only care for the causative teeth, but also actual surgical intervention for the fistulae.