Pediatric Emergency Medicine Journal (Dec 2022)

Epidemiologic features according to age groups of pediatric dental injury in emergency departments

  • Seon Woo Kim,
  • Jea Yeon Choi,
  • Jin Seong Cho,
  • Jae-Hyug Woo,
  • Jae Ho Jang,
  • Woo Sung Choi,
  • Sung Youl Hyun

DOI
https://doi.org/10.22470/pemj.2022.00507
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 2
pp. 95 – 102

Abstract

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Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiologic features of pediatric dental injury according to age groups using Korean national data. Methods We reviewed the data from 2015 to 2019 Emergency Department-based Injury In-depth Surveillance registry, which involves 23 emergency departments in Korea. We included children aged 18 years or younger with the International Classification of Disease, 10th Revision codes related to dental injury. Other or combined codes were excluded. The children were classified by age groups: infants (< 1 year), preschoolers (2-6), schoolers (7-12), and adolescents (13-18). As per the age groups, we compared the clinical characteristics, injury event profiles, and outcomes. Results The study population (n = 33,020) consisted of 8,900 infants (27.0%), 15,705 preschoolers (47.6%), 5,295 schoolers (16.0%), and 3,120 adolescents (9.4%). Their median age was 3 years (interquartile range, 1-7), and boys accounted for 64.2%. The most common mechanism, type of activity, and place were slip down (14,274 [43.2%]), daily activity (23,777 [72.0%]), and home (19,980 [60.5%]), respectively. Among the injury types, soft tissue injury was most common (24,357 [73.8%]). As for the outcomes, 32,841 (99.5%) children were discharged, and 332 (1.0%) children had severe injury. As the age increased, the frequencies changed as follows. As for the place and type, household injury and soft tissue injury decreased while outdoor injury, such as road traffic injury, and tooth fracture increased (P < 0.001). As for the type of activity, injuries related to exercise/sports and education increased (P < 0.001). Of the sports activity, ball sports increased while kickboard/cycle decreased (P < 0.001). Conclusion Using the epidemiologic features of pediatric dental injury, it is advisable to establish injury prevention strategies according to the age groups.

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