Abstract
The treatment of maxillofacial fractures is performed both domestically and internationally as an important area of dental and oral surgery. However, the overall situation of maxillofacial fracture cases treated by oral surgeons in Japan is not clear. Accordingly, we studied the situation of maxillofacial fractures in patients who consulted or were treated at oral surgery facilities in Japan, by analyzing the data of a nationwide disease survey led by the Japanese Society of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons （JSOMS）.
The Society has surveyed the numbers of consultation cases and inpatient surgery cases by disease every year and has published the results for the 14 years from 1998 to 2011 so far. We focused on the data of fractures in the mandible, maxilla and zygoma, and examined the conditions of consultation and inpatient surgery during the period.
The number of respondent facilities in the JSOMS survey increased from 172 in 1998 to 213 in 2011, a 1.24-fold increase. The total number of consultation cases for mandibular, maxillary and zygomatic fractures increased from 4243 in 1998 to 5416 in 2011, a 1.28-fold increase. The rates of increase of consultation cases for the mandible, maxilla and zygoma were 1.17, 1.40 and 1.26 during the 14 years, respectively. The number of inpatient surgery cases increased 1.25, 1.11 and 1.01 times, respectively. Differences in the rate of increase between consultation and inpatient surgery suggested that patients who not only consulted but also underwent treatment at oral surgery facilities slightly increased for mandibular fracture but decreased for the other two fractures. The percentages of mandibular, maxillary and zygomatic fractures were approximately 72%, 16% and 12% in 1998 and 66%, 19% and 15% in 2011, respectively.
To examine whether regional differences of those percentages existed among prefectures, a cluster analysis was performed in each prefecture. Consequently, no uneven distributions of the clusters among the prefectures were observed.
This study helped clarify the overall picture of current maxillofacial fracture cases treated by oral surgeons in Japan.
