Incidence of traumatic dental injury in Valencia, Spain

BACKGROUND: While traumatic dental injuries (TDI) are an increasingly frequent occurrence in everyday dental practice, little research on TDIs has been published in Spain. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of TDIs in a population in Valencia (Spain) and investigate influential variables. In addition, a protocol for TDI data collection is proposed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective study compiled data from patients attending a private dental clinic between January 2003 and December 2014. The data were collected using a specially-elaborated protocol entitled “Emergency care of acute dental trauma”. Patients responded to each item, and data was added from case radiographs and photographs. Data were entered in a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet and submitted for analysis by SPSS 15.0 software (Chicago, IL) applying 2-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (p<0.01). RESULTS: 481 TDIs in 251 patients were examined at a private dental practice in Valencia. The population comprised 62.5% men and 37.5% women, aged 1 to 78 years. The highest frequency of tooth injuries occurred in children aged 9 years or younger. The most frequent injury was non-complicated crown fracture (43.2%). Upper central incisors were the most commonly affected teeth. The most frequent place where TDI was produced was in the street (28.7%), tripping over an immobile object being the most common cause (29%). CONCLUSIONS: Thanks to the protocol elaborated for the purposes of this work, it was possible to compile a large quantity of data on TDI, facilitating future prevention and comparison with other regions. The results obtained concur with those published in the literature. Key words:Dental trauma, traumatic dental injuries, prevalence, epidemiology, risk factors.