2015 Volume 53 Issue 3 Pages 414-420
To elucidate the conditions and management of children who visited our pediatric dental clinic with a chief complaint of traumatic tooth injury, we surveyed the following factors ; i) age and gender of patient, ii) elapsed days after injury, iii) presence or absence of referral letter from another clinic, iv) cause of injury, v) type and condition of injured teeth, and vi) management of injured teeth at the first visit.
We encountered 192 patients with injured teeth (238 primary, 107 permanent) among 1816 children who visited our clinic for the first time from January 2010 to December 2012. The following results were obtained.
1)Two years was the most frequent age among all patients with injured teeth, with 44% of all children aged 2 years or younger who visited our clinic showing dental trauma.
2)Regardless of primary or permanent teeth, dental trauma occurred more often in boys.
3)Many of the children with injured teeth waited to visit our hospital at 2−7 days after the injury,rather than within 24 hours.
4)In cases of primary injured teeth, 74% of those children had a referral letter from another clinic,whereas 54% of children with permanent tooth injury carried a referral letter.
5)The most common cause of injury was a fall.
6)Dislocation of primary teeth (58%) and crown fracture of permanent teeth (41%) were the most frequently reported injuries.
7)Maxillary central incisors were most frequently affected in both primary and permanent dentition.
8)Follow-up observations was the most common mode chosen to manage injured teeth.
Based on our findings, the characteristics of dental trauma in children in the Tokyo metropolitan area were consistent with previous reports. However, since conservative follow-up without treatment was frequently decided, it is suggested that several of the patients might have visited our dental college hospital for only a mild injury. In recent years, an increasing number of children have come to our institution with a referral letter from anther clinic. Technical knowledge and appropriate methods for treating dental trauma only available at a university dental hospital might be in high demand by private practitioners, as well as children and their parents.
