Manejo del traumatismo alvéolo-dentario infantil en el Servicio de Urgencias de un hospital terciario

Abstract

Introduction: dental injury is very common in childhood and a frequent reason for consultation in pediatric emergency departments. Objectives: to study the management of dental injury in a tertiary hospital. Material and methods: retrospective descriptive study. All patients under 15 years old consulting for dental injury in the Pediatric Emergency Department of Hospital 12 de Octubre between September 2008 and August 2010 were included. During this period of time a specific management protocol of these patients was started. Results: a total of 374 patients were treated, 63% being males, with a median age of 4.45 years. In 84% of cases the etiology was casual, followed by a 3% sports-related accident. Thirty-two percent of the patients were referred from other centers for Maxillofacial Surgery evaluation. In 60% of cases, children were treated exclusively by pediatricians. The most common reasons for maxillofacial surgery evaluation were: suture of gingival laceration (6.4%), dental extraction (3%) and ferulization (1.3%); 83.4% required only medical treatment. Conclusions: dental injury is a common reason for consultation in the pediatric emergency department and referral to other centers. Most patients have mild lesions so they need neither complementary studies nor surgery treatment and should be managed by pediatricians following agreed protocols.