Electrical injuries of the oral cavity: A menace to mankind

Abstract

The rarest of its kind, the electrical injuries of the commissure areas of the mouth pose a potential threat in terms of management to the practitioner. The most commonly affected young toddlers, in their teething period, chew onto the female end of the live extension wire cord. Saliva which acts a medium transports the electrical current to the fragile mucosa of the oral cavity thereby leading to the treacherous burn injuries. Since children have an overall lower fat component and different surface area to volume ratio, which impacts on the risk of deep tissue damage compared to adults with equivalent injury. The review outlines: (1) A detailed review of literature reflecting the various treatment modalities proposed by different practitioners worldwide and (2) the prosthetic therapy for the conservative management of the electrical injuries of the oral cavity.

Keywords

• Acrylic splint
• burns
• commissure
• electrical Injuries
• infants
• microstomia