Management of traumatic dental injuries in paediatric age: the importance of adhesion to national guidelines

The objective of this study is to evaluate the application of National guidelines for prevention and clinical management of traumatic dental injuries in developmental age published in November 2012 in Italy by the Ministry of Health and updated in February 2018. Materials and Methods: Italian National Guidelines for Prevention and Clinical Management of Traumatic Dental Injuries in developmental age indicate the strategies for prevention of traumatic dental injuries and health education, the first aid protocol, the certification of traumatic dental injuries and the identification of child abuse. In the present retrospective and multicenter study, 83 patients (54 M, 29 F) who underwent dental injury were selected to assess the management of the traumatic event complied with the protocol provided by the Nationals Guidelines for Prevention and Clinical Management of Traumatic Dental Injuries in developmental age. The study is aimed at first aid doctors, family and hospital pediatricians, private dentists, University and hospitals.Every each health worker involved in the study was sent an evaluation form to be completed, related to dental injury, to standardize the collected data. The reference center has been identified for data collection: University of Rome “Sapienza”. All the evaluation forms, completed correctly, were sent to the various reference center, which after collecting them sent the material to the coordinating center (University of Rome “Sapienza”) for data processing. Results: Evaluating the distribution by age we had: that 27.24% (8 F, 10 M) of the enrolled patients were aged 1-5 years, 51.63% 6-10 years (15 F, 33 M), 19,92% 11-17 years (6 F, 11 M). The dental injury occurred in 10.16% at home, 50.81% at school, 28.86% for play, and 9.35% at the gym. The deciduous dentition is involved in 34.96% of the traumas while the permanent dentition is involved in 69.51%. Conclusions: From the present study it emerged that the National guidelines for prevention and clinical management of traumatic dental injuries in developmental age are not uniformly applied.