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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived value of clinical photographs for traumatic dental injuries (TDIs). Methods: A survey was sent to members of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD). The survey collected respondents' responses to case-based questions with and without photographs, and opinions about the value of photography for TDI. Results: A total of 496 respondents (5.8 percent response) completed the survey. Overall, no significant difference in correct answers was observed between cases with and without a photograph (P=0.09). The majority of respondents (82.2 percent) agreed that photographs should be taken for the management of TDIs, with 88.7 percent stating that the photographs aided in the diagnosis of TDIs. The majority of respondents acknowledged the time-saving (80.9 percent) and legal importance (77.0 percent) of photographs. Conclusion: Photographs should be taken in the management of traumatic dental injuries when possible for history and documentation purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim: The purpose of this study was to identify social variables common to children with dento‐alveolar trauma (DAT) and child abuse and neglect (CAN) in a large children's hospital population. Methods: Emergency department data from an urban trauma Level 1 children's hospital were queried between December 02, 2017 and September 30, 2022 to identify children with both DAT and CAN. Patients with DAT and CAN were compared to DAT‐only children in a case–control study design. Descriptive statistics were used to report characteristics of children in case and control groups. Chi‐Squared and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare cases and controls. The level of significance was set at p ≤.05. Results: In total, 14 children who had DAT and CAN reported simultaneously comprised the case group. A total of 42 children with DAT‐only, age/sex matched with cases, comprised the control group. Mean (SD) age of cases was 10.4 (±4) and controls was 10.1 (±3.9) years‐old. Eight cases (57.1%) and 24 controls (57.1%) were female. No statistical differences (p =.05) were present for language, race, insurance coverage, parental custody, legal guardianship, and type of residence for cases versus controls. Five (35.7%) cases had a special need versus 4 (9.5%) controls and was statistically different (p =.03). Nine (64.3%) cases had behavioral problems versus 13 (31%) controls (p =.05). Cases were more likely to have facial injuries than controls (74.3 vs. 31%), however no significant differences were present for total number of injured teeth, head injury or neck injury between cases and controls. In half of cases, the perpetrator reported was the sibling. Conclusions: Demographics did not predict CAN in children with dental injuries. Sibling violence should be considered in suspected CAN children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim: Participation in sports activities is a source of dental injury. Despite recommendations for the use of mouthguards, athletes underutilize them. The aim of this study was to provide estimates of dental injuries, the mechanism of injuries and the utilization of mouthguards in high school sports. Materials and Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of an existing dataset of a convenience sample of the National High School Sports‐Related Injury Surveillance Study. Data of athletic exposures, dental injuries, mouthguard usage, and mechanism of injury from the 2005/2006 to the 2019/2020 academic years were analyzed. Results: During the study period, there were 459 dental injuries in 49,987,927 athletic exposures resulting in a dental injury rate of 0.9 per 100,000 athletic exposures (AE). Slightly more than half of the traumatic dental injuries were sustained during competition (n = 256; 55.8%) and the rest (n = 200; 43.6%) were sustained during practice. The rate of dental injury in competition was 3.6 times higher than the rate in practice (RR: 3.6, 95% CI: 3.0–4.4). Dental injuries comprised 0.4% of the total 108,574 injuries sustained by athletes. Among girls' sports, field hockey had the highest rate (3.5 per 100,000 AE) and among boys' sports, basketball (2.4 per 100,000 AE) had the highest rate of dental injury. The most common mechanism of injury was contact with another player (276; 60.4%) followed by contact with apparatus (146; 31.9%). In the majority of dental injuries (308; 75.1%), the athlete was not wearing a mouthguard when the dental injury was sustained. Conclusions: Dental injuries were a small proportion of all injuries sustained by high school athletes. The majority of dental injuries were sustained when the athlete was not wearing a mouthguard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate an association between treatments on the primary second molars (PSMs) under general anesthesia (GA) and odds of repeat GA. Methods: This was a retrospective study of children who received dental treatment under GA between the ages of 24 to 48 months. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models (P<0.05) were used to test the association between the treatment of PSMs at the first dental GA visit (GA1) and the odds of receiving GA a second time (GA2) within the next 55 months post-GA1. Results: A total of 819 children (53 percent male) with a mean (±SD) age of 36 (±seven SD) months and 3,276 PSMs were included. Only three percent of children with all PSMs covered at GA1 received GA2. The odds of GA2 significantly increased for children with any uncovered PSMs. Among children with four uncovered PSMs, 19 percent (odds ratio [OR] equals 13; 95 percent confidence interval [95% CI] equals 5.8 to 33.5; P<0.001) and among those with unerupted PSMs at GA1, 51 percent received GA2 (OR equals 62.9; 95% CI equals 23.5 to 189.2; P<0.001). In the group that received GA2, 79.1 percent of uncovered PSMs at GA1 eventually received a stainless steel crown at GA2. Conclusions: Restorative treatments other than stainless steel crowns were associated with higher odds of repeat general anesthesia. These findings support the preferential use of full-coverage restorations for the treatment of carious primary molars in young children undergoing GA to minimize the risk of the need for repeat GA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim: It is crucial that dentists who treat traumatic dental injuries rule out concomitant brain injuries. Despite anatomic proximity, controversy exists regarding association between facial trauma and head injury. The aim of this study was to examine the association between dento‐alveolar trauma (DAT) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) using a national dataset of emergency department (ED) visits. Material and Methods: Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) data, one of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) datasets, were analyzed. Encounters of patients age 0‐18 years with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD‐9‐CM) codes associated with DAT and TBI in the 2010‐2014 NEDS were identified. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi‐square test, and logistic regression models to investigate the association between DAT and TBI and factors associated with TBI in DAT‐positive patients. Results: During the study period, 6 281 658 ED visits were associated with traumatic injuries. DAT was recorded in 93 408 (1.5%) and TBI was recorded in 996 334 (15.9%) of these traumatic injury visits. Within the group of DAT‐positive encounters, 7035 (7.5%) had codes associated with TBI. Of trauma encounters where a DAT was not involved (6 188 250 encounters), 989 299 (16%) had an associated TBI code. Patients with DAT had 0.20 odds of having TBI (95% CI, 0.19‐0.20, P <.0001) compared with patients who did not have DAT when all other confounding variables were kept constant. Having multiple injuries, being involved in motor vehicle crashes, and injuries due to assault were associated with higher odds of concomitant TBI in patients who sustained DAT. Conclusions: There was an inverse association between DAT and TBI in this study population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]