Retrospective study on traumatic dental injuries in preschool children at Kyung Hee Dental Hospital, Seoul, South Korea

The purpose of this study was to analyse the traumatic dental injuries (TDI) of Korean preschoolers by investigating the occurrence, type, area, cause, injured region, seasonal variation and the interval between injury and treatment. In this study, data from 1856 preschoolers aged 4 months to 6 years and 11 months (mean age : 3.6 +/- 1.6) were used, out of a total of 2761 patients who attended the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Kyung Hee Dental Hospital for TDI between January 1998 and December 2007. All the data were statistically analysed using the anovaand chi-square statics. Most of the patients were 1-2, 2-3 years old (24.5%, 25.4%) and boys were 1.67 times more likely to have TDI. The most common cause, location and seasonal variation of the trauma, were respectively falling (50.8%), at home (48.8%) and late spring. The treatment intervals usually occurred within a day. Most of the injuries involved single (47%) or double (38%) tooth/teeth. However, car accidents or sports trauma often involved multiple teeth. In both primary and permanent dentition, the most common teeth injured were maxillary central incisors (72.6%), and periodontal injury was caused by subluxation or concussion. Among the various types of hard tissue injuries, enamel fracture in the primary dentition (35.0%) and enamel-dentin fracture in the permanent dentition (45.8%) were the most common types.