Incidence of traumatic tooth injuries in children and adolescents in the county of Västmanland, Sweden

Abstract

The study reports the total incidence as well as the incidence of different types of traumatic tooth injuries in a Swedish county in the age interval 0-19 years during 1989/90. The incidence of individuals experiencing tooth injuries was 13 per 1000 per year. Boys were more frequently injured in the age-groups 3-4 years and 7-9 years and girls, in the age-group 5-6 years. A method is presented defining uncomplicated and complicated tooth injuries as a basis for estimating the economic consequences of these injuries in the community. Boys more often suffered uncomplicated injuries to permanent teeth and girls, to primary teeth (p < 0.05). The same distribution was found for uncomplicated multiple tooth injuries. Boys sustained more uncomplicated hard tissue injuries and girls, more uncomplicated luxation injuries (p < 0.01). Using a classification according to the most serious tooth injury in each episode, 33% of the episodes had resulted in complicated injuries in which the pulpal tissue and/or periodontal membrane was severely damaged.