The conservative approach in the treatment of maxillofacial trauma in children has been widely adopted. The type of fracture and its presence within the growing facial skeleton along with the presence of tooth buds may result in different management strategies to that employed in adults. An understanding of conservative treatment options is essential to make informed choices which will best manage these injuries, and an example is presented in this paper. This case report describes a 14-year-old boy who sustained trauma to the chin as a result of a fall, causing a mandibular symphyseal fracture. He was successfully treated by the means of applying direct interdental wiring combined with an acrylic splint.
The objectives of this Malaysian study were to investigate the relationship between severity of trauma and interval before treatment, and the effect of delayed treatment on prognosis. A total of 123 traumatized permanent incisors were observed over a 24-month period. Results of this study suggest that the interval between trauma and emergency treatment is directly related to the severity of injury and the level of dental awareness of the patients. However, prognosis of these teeth is greatly influenced by the interval between trauma and initial treatment. Pathological pulp changes in these teeth can occur as late as two years after injury and this justifies the necessity for a long observation period following treatment.
Little new evidence on the prevalence of injury to the anterior teeth of children has been reported in the past five years and, in South Africa, trauma to the teeth of children in different ethnic groups has not been compared respectively. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the prevalence of dental trauma using well-defined criteria and to sample a specific age-group. Five regions were chosen and 1035 children in the eleven-year age-group were examined. No statistical significance was found between the ethnic groups related to the amount of injury sustained. For all groups, boys received more injuries than girls. The most common injury was fracture of the enamel of the maxillary central incisor. With 15 percent of the children receiving some level of trauma by age eleven years, this is one of the main dental treatment needs for South African children.