Abstract
It is obvious that epidemiological surveillance is necessary to understand the cause of dental injuries, and also careful attention ought to be paid to the activity of the children in order to grasp the potential background of dental trauma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual conditions in which children's teeth undergo traumatic injury and treatment of traumatised teeth in the pediatric dental clinic. The subjects in this survey were 1815 patients aged between 0 to 19years who visited the Kanagawa Dental College Hospital for the period from 1973to 1992.
The results were as follows:
1) The number of patients with traumatic injuries of teeth at our clinic has shown a gradual increase in recent years.
2) The traumatic injuries of teeth occurred frequently in between May and July, September and October.
3) The traumatic injuries of teeth occurred frequently between 1 and 3 years of age in the primary dentition, and between 6 and 12 years of age in the permanent dentition with a maximum at 7 to 8 years of age. The upper central incisors were most frequently affected in both the primary and permanent dentitions.
4) The ratios of affected boys and girls was 1.5: 1 for the primary teeth, and 1.9: 1 for the permanent teeth respectively.
5) The types of trauma in the primary teeth were frequently luxation (involving subluxation), concussion and fracture in that order. Those in the permanent teeth were fracture, luxation and concussion in that order.
6) The treatment of trauma in the primary teeth included frequently observation, extraction, fixation and pulp therapy in that order. Those in the permanent teeth included fixation, observation, pulp therapy, crown restoration, replantation and extraction in that order.
It is concluded that the prevalence of dental trauma in children appears to be on the increase in our area. Therefore it is necessary to inform the community that proper response in the case of dental accident and preventive methods are quite important factors.
