Abstract
In an attempt to evaluate the prognosis of traumatized primary teeth, a longitudinal clinical and radiographical follow-up study was made for forty eight children with a total of 90 traumatized primary incisors until their permanent successors erupted. The material included children aged 0 to 6 at the first visits, and 7 children (11 teeth) had their first visit more than 8 days after the trauma.15 teeth were lost at the time of the traumatic injuries, and 14 teeth were extracted at the first visit.
In 61 preserved traumatized primary incisors, for 50 teeth the first visit was within 7 days of trauma, and included 45 teeth with periodontal injuries and 5 teeth with the hard tissue fractured.
The treatments for periodontal injuries were fixation with or without reposition, or observation only. Consequences to these primary teeth comprised: color changes (29%), pulp canal obliteration (29%), pathological changes of pulp (pulpitis or pulp necrosis) (22%), eccessive tooth mobility (9%), and malformation on their permanent successors (60%) 75% of the eccessive tooth mobility was observed within one month after the first visit,75% of the pathological changes of pulp within six months, and about half of the pulp canal obliteration within one year.
Twelve teeth showed discoloration during the follow-up period, and 9 of these teeth -(75%) developed pulp canal obliteration.Two of these teeth (17%) developed pulpitis or pulp necrosis.
Pulp canal obliteration occured more frequently in the teeth of the younger age of chirdren and during the early stage of root development at the time of injury. The presence of heavy luxation seemed to increase the risk of pathological changes in the pulp, and these changes were observed more often in the teeth with complete root formation compared to the teeth with developing roots.
In 5 preserved teeth with hard tissue injuries, teeth with crown fracture normally survived after restorative therapy. It was however hard to preserve teeth with root fracture.
