Dental injuries in Copenhagen schoolchildren, school years 1967–1972

Abstract

abstract The Copenhagen Municipal School Dental Service examines and treats about 50,000 children each year. As from (he beginning of the 1967/68 school year, a special registration form for traumatic dental injuries was introduced with this School Dental Service. During the 5‐year period from 1967–1972 a total of 9,965 traumatic injuries was registered in the school population. The boy/girl ratio was 1.6:1 and the largest number of injuries for both sexes is found in the age 8–9 years. About 25–30 % of the traumatized children sustained traumata more than once. By means of computation it was discovered that 34.9 % of boys and 23.1 % of girls may be assumed to have sustained a trauma before leaving school in the 9th grade. In 25 % of the cases the injury was treated no later than 2 hours after the accident and 40 % were treated on the same day. A very clear connection between the number of injuries and the school year was observed. Generally one tooth was involved and it was extremely rare for a trauma to involve more than four teeth. There were a total of 12,989 injuries to 11,767 teeth. The majority of cases involved the maxillary central incisors (70 %). Soft tissue injury was the only reason for the examination in 15 % of the cases. The relation between lip closure and trauma was also examined. One‐fourth of those examined had an incomplete lip closure.