Abstract
Patients with mental retardation tend to suffer more oral and maxillofacial injuries than healthy subjects because of their mental and physical peculiarities. We performed clinical observation of 47 mentally retarded patients with oral and maxillofacial injuries in the Division of Dentistry, Chiba Prefectural Sawara Hospital during the five-year period of 2012 to 2017. The male to female ratio was 1.5：1. By age distribution, the age group of 30–39 years showed the highest incidence of injuries （10 cases, 31.9％）. The most common systemic disease was epilepsy （27 cases, 57.4％）, followed by autism （13 cases, 27.7％）. The most common cause was fall （27 cases, 57.4％）. A unique characteristic was that many patients were self-injured: biting of mouth soft tissue （18 cases, 38.2％）. The frequency of traumas was higher in May （7 cases, 14.9％）, June （7 cases, 14.9％） and December （8 cases, 17％）. Injury in only teeth was present in 31 cases （66％）, followed by 8 cases （17％） with only soft tissue injuries and 7 cases （14.9％） presenting tooth and soft tissue injuries. Most patients were treated appropriately, however, surgical procedures such as tooth extraction and observation of progress were chosen for some patients because they were non-cooperative. The results of our analysis showed that, for appropriate treatment of mentally retarded patients with oral and maxillofacial injuries, it is important to consider the differences in physiology and psychological features between mentally retarded and healthy patients.
