Abstract
Maxillofacial fractures in children often occur in the mandible. However, children are in the process of growing and developing, and their fracture patterns change depending on the anatomical factors of the mandibular bone and the social factors of the child at the time of injury. In this study, we report 33 cases of pediatric mandibular fractures in our department whose age, sex, cause of injury, fracture site, fracture pattern, and treatment were examined, in order to clarify the characteristics of each of the various age groups. The patients were divided into three age groups: infant age （0-6 years）, school age （7-12 years）, and junior high school age （13-15 years）.
There were 9 cases of infant age, 13 of school age, and 11 of junior high school age. As for the ratio of males and females, the proportion of girls decreased with increasing age. More than half of the injuries were caused by falls at infant age. At school age, traffic accidents and falls were the most common in that order, and at junior high school age, traffic accidents and sports were the most common in that order. The fracture pattern was characterized by a symphysis fracture at infant age, mandibular body fracture at school age, and angle fracture at junior high school age. The characteristic findings of pediatric mandibular fractures during the development stage were considered to be closely related to mandibular bone flexibility, mandibular sutura and tooth germ formation.
