Changes in the epidemiology and aetiology of dental traumatic injuries in permanent teeth in children before and after German unification.

Aim: To evaluate the longitudinal occurrence of traumatic dental injuries in permanent teeth comparing recent data from 2014 to 2016 in Greifswald after German unification with a historic sample from socialist times (1974-1989).

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective study, traumatic dental injury parameters as type, date, location, and cause of injury as well as tooth affected were extracted from the trauma records of patients from 1974 to 1989 and 2014-2016.

Results: The descriptive analysis of 444 teeth in 245 patients revealed that the recent and historic samples had a very similar pattern of dental trauma (201/243 teeth in 117/128 patients, respectively): Maxillary permanent central incisors were affected in 70.7% and 68.3%, respectively. Enamel-dentine fractures were the most prevalent fracture injury in both recent and historic samples (64% and 43.1%, respectively) followed by enamel fractures (20.7% and 36.9%, respectively). Subluxations were the most common luxation traumatic dental injury (44.7%) followed by lateral luxation (39.8%) as reported in the historic sample while in the recent sample subluxation constituted 42.9% of luxation injuries followed by concussion (36.2%).

Conclusion: This study detected a very stable pattern of dental traumatic injuries over 40 years, even after the change from a socialistic society to a market economy.