Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec 31;49(6):339-346.
doi: 10.5125/jkaoms.2023.49.6.339.

Dental trauma trends in emergency care:a comparative analysis before, during, and after COVID-19

Woo-Jung Yang  1 , Ji-Young Yoon  1
Affiliations

Dental trauma trends in emergency care:a comparative analysis before, during, and after COVID-19

Woo-Jung Yang et al. J Korean Assoc Oral Maxillofac Surg. .

Abstract

Objectives: This analysis details the characteristics of dental trauma in South Korea during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (DC) pandemic and compares them in patients before and after COVID-19 (BC and AC, respectively).

Materials and methods: Data were collected from medical records of patients who visited Seoul National University Bundang Hospital's Emergency Dental Care Center during three 12-month periods: BC, DC, and AC (BC from March 1, 2019 to February 29, 2020; DC from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021; AC from March 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023). A retrospective review was conducted to investigate patient age, sex, time of visit, cause, and diagnosis. The study included 1,544 patients: 660 BC, 374 DC, and 510 AC.

Results: Significant difference in age and sex was not observed among the three periods; 1-9 years of age was the largest group (38.3% in BC, 29.6% in DC, and 27.8% in AC), and the percentage of male patients was greater than of female patients (male proportion as 63.5% in BC, 67.4% in DC, and 64.9% in AC). The number of patients generally peaked at a Saturday night in spring (for BC: May, Saturday, 18:00-19:59; for DC: March, Saturday, 18:00-19:59; for AC: April as the second most (October as the most peaked), Saturday, 20:00-21:59). The primary etiology of the dental trauma was identical in the three periods: falls, followed by sports. The most frequent diagnosis was laceration, followed by tooth avulsion and jaw fracture.

Conclusion: Significant differences were not found between the characteristics and patterns of dental trauma in the BC, DC, and AC periods. However, due to the pandemic and social distancing, activities decreased and associated dental trauma-related incidents declined.

Keywords: COVID-19; Emergency treatment; Sports medicine; Tooth avulsion; Tooth injuries.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The percentage of patient visits in each month before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The percentage of patient visits in each day before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The percentage of patients visited in each time range before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The percentage of patients’ sex distribution before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The percentage of etiology of patients before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (TA: traffic accident, BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19)
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Types of sports that cause trauma to patients before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19)
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
The percentage of patients’ age distribution before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19)
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
The percentage of diagnosis of patients before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19, fx: fracture)
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Characteristic of sports that cause trauma to patients before, during, and after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). (BC: before COVID-19, DC: during COVID-19, AC: after COVID-19)
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
The percentage of diagnoses for patients with e-kickboard-related trauma and drunken-related trauma. (fx: fracture)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Sirin DA, Ozcelik F. The relationship between COVID-19 and the dental damage stage determined by radiological examination. Oral Radiol. 2021;37:600–9. doi: 10.1007/s11282-020-00497-0. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11282-020-00497-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Han E, Tan MMJ, Turk E, Sridhar D, Leung GM, Shibuya K, et al. Lessons learnt from easing COVID-19 restrictions: an analysis of countries and regions in Asia Pacific and Europe. Lancet. 2020;396:1525–34. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32007-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)32007-9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), author Updates on COVID-19 in Republic of Korea: change to social distancing level 1 (October 12) [Internet] KDCA; Cheongju: 2020. [cited 2020 Dec 14]. Available from: https://www.kdca.go.kr/board/board.es?mid=a20501010000&bid=0015&act=view... .
    1. Woolley J, Djemal S. Traumatic dental injuries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prim Dent J. 2021;10:28–32. doi: 10.1177/2050168420980994. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050168420980994. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Huang C, Yang Y, Wang Z, Wang W, Liu Y, Zhang M. A retrospective study of emergent traumatic dental injuries in permanent teeth in Xiʼan, China. Medicine (Baltimore) 2022;101:e32588. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000032588. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000032588. - DOI - PMC - PubMed