The causes and types of dento-alveolar traumatic injuries may differ according to the material investigated, but also seem to be related to the place of treatment, hospital material collecting the more severe injuries. Epidemiological investigations reveal a high incidence of dental injuries sometimes related to predisposing factors, but mostly due to traffic accidents or to individual or group contact sports. The majority of dental injuries involves the anterior teeth and usually affect a single tooth, though certain trauma types favor multiple injuries.
Most reports point out a precise sex and age distribution and seasonal variations.
The difficult therapeutic problem raised by traumatic loss of anterior teeth as well as the high socio-economic cost of dental trauma stress the need for collecting valuable data dealing with causes and types of teeth injuries. References The Orthodontic and Pedodontic Department of the University of Geneva School of Dental Medicine has created an emergency unit, taking care of dento-alveolar emergencies day and night, all week long and all through the year. The aim of such retrospective evaluation is to identify various epidemiological data which will progressively provide a basis for the determination of optimal treatment approach and might help to define educational and therapeutical needs in emergency units devoted to the treatment of dento-alveolar traumas. Injuries were divided into hard or periodontal tissue injuries and luxation injuries were divided in 5 distinct types. The age of the patients incorporated in the sample varied between 1 year and 16.10 years.