Abstract
Osteomyelitis is a progressive infection of bone, usually of infectious origin, which tends to spread and instances may involve the entire bone. A prevalence of an osteomyelitis in children however, is very low compared with in adults. Recently, the general view is that sever dental caries in children have decreased and osteomyelitis of the jaws in children has been reduced in accordance with spread of using antibiotics. Nevertheless, some child and adolescent patients with osteomyelitis still visit the Okayama University Dental Hospital. The character of the changes that were produced in the bone of children with osteomyelitis was quiet different from that in adults. This article describes the radiographical and clinical features of osteomyelitis in children. The following results were obtained.
1) The age at occurrence of osteomyelitis was distributed equally among each age group.
2) Males showed a significantly higher prevalence of osteomyelitis than female.
3) Periosteum responses were found clearly in 61% of patients. This percentage was significantly higher than the 10% of the adult patients.
4) Forty four percent of the present cases occurred due to infection from a severely carious first molars in the mandible. Similarly,29% was occurred due to infection from primary posterior teeth.
