Clinical analysis of dental trauma patients in the emergency room

OBJECTIVE To Analyze the etiological and clinical characteristics of dental trauma in dental emergency. METHODS A comprehensive review of 975 emergencies of dental trauma seen at the Emergency Room of Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology during a two-year period was performed. General characteristics, such as age and gender, time of visit, causes of dental trauma, places where the dental trauma happened, diagnoses, and related treatments were analyzed. RESULTS The two age peaks of dental trauma patients under 18 years were 2 to 4 years and 7 to 12 years. There were more male patients than females in the groups above 7-year-old, but there were no difference in gender distribution in infants and toddlers. Spring had the lowest frequency of dental traumatic emergencies, but winter was the busiest season. Dental emergencies with traumatic causes followed a pattern during the week. Most patient visits presented during weekends. 24.1% of the patients presented to the dental clinic within 2 hours after injury, only 4.7% of the patients visited the clinic after 24 hours. 64.4% of the children younger than 5 years were injured at home, but 82.3% of children aged 5 and older and 93.1% adults were injured in the outdoor environment. The number of injured teeth in left and right side had no significant difference (P>0.05). Maxillary incisors were easily to be affected, especially the maxillary central incisor. Crown fracture was the most common traumatic type. The combination of dental trauma and oral and maxillofacial soft tissue injury was experienced by 692 patients (71.0%). CONCLUSION Dental trauma was one of the common diseases in oral emergencies. Knowledge of the etiological and clinical characteristics of emergency dental trauma could help us to treat them and make specific preventive measures. Clinical examination should be comprehensive and meticulous to avoid misdiagnosis, for emergency dental trauma often involving multiple teeth, and associated with different degrees of maxillofacial soft tissue injury.