Inappropriate treatment of traumatic dental injuries.

Traumatic dental injuries are emergencies that must be treated expediently and efficiently to reduce pain and to restore function and appearance. With an increase in the incidence of traumatic dental injuries in our community (I) it is essential that the dental practitioner has "up-to-date" knowledge of dental trauma. The peak incidences of injury are 2-4 years and 8-10 years of age, with statistics revealing 30% of children suffer trauma to the primary dentition, and 22% of children suffer trauma to the permanent dentition by the age of 14 (I). The male to female ratio is 2:1. Aside from the emergency treatment and clinical decisions that must be made at the time of injury there is a need for long-term follow-up because of the high incidences of complications (2, 3). The factors that will influence the extent of injury will be energy impact, the direction of the impacting object, its shape and its resilience (4). Recent articles have raised concerns about inappropriate treatment for traumatic dental injuries (5, 6). This report will look at one such case.