Epidemiological profile of dento-alveolar trauma treated at Pelotas' city hospital

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the epidemiology of dento-alveolar injuries treated in the emergency room of Pelotas' city hospital during a three-year period. Methods: A total of 239 cases of dento-alveolar injuries were treated. Data related to age, gender, etiology, diagnosis, anatomical site, and period of time when injuries occurred were obtained from patients' files and were submitted to statistical analysis with SPSS 8.0. Results: Results showed that the occurrence of trauma was higher in male patients (66,4%) at ages ranging from 0 to 6 years old (41,8%) and from 7 to 20 years old (30,1%). Falls were the main cause of trauma (36,8%), followed by aggression (15,1%), and bicycle accidents (14,6%). Avulsion (17,6%) was more frequent than crown fracture without pulp exposition (14,1%) and lateral luxation (9,6%). In 18,2% of the cases, patients presented some soft tissue injury. Lips (57,58%) were the most commonly affected site followed by gingiva (10,26%). Permanent maxillary central incisors represented 37,53% of the cases and 28,38% of the traumas involved deciduous maxillary central incisors. When etiology and gender were related, it was observed that 31,6% of male patients suffered fall while 18,4% had bicycle accidents. Amongst female patients falls represented 47,5% of the cases and 11,3% of these patients suffered some kind of aggression. From the relation etiology/diagnosis, results showed that aggression was the cause of 27,8% cases of avulsion and 27,8% of crown fracture without pulp exposition. Falls caused 20,5% of avulsion and 15,9% of intrusion. Conclusions: Taking into consideration the age, the etiology and the period of the year of the analyzed injuries, it is clear the need of implementing specific preventive measures, providing proper professional education as well as restructuring the services to supply such demand.