Prevalence of dental emergencies in pediatric patients treated in a peruvian public health center

Abstract

Introduction: Dental emergencies are situations that occur suddenly or unexpectedly, causing damage to the dental organ and the adjacent dental structure, compromising the patient's oral health, requiring immediate and efficient attention. Objective: To determine the prevalence of dental emergencies in patients from 6 to 12 years of age treated at the National Institute of Children's Health of Breña in the period July 2016 - July 2018. Material and methods: A retrospective and cross-sectional basic descriptive study was carried out, In a population of 427 clinical histories of children between the ages of 6 and 12 admitted urgently to the National Children's Health Institute of Breña, a data collection sheet was used to obtain data, taking into account the patient's data and the origin of dental emergencies that are part of the investigation. Results: From the size of the sample made up of 427 medical records of children from 6 to 12 years old with prevalence of dental emergencies in the period of two years, presenting in the study carried out dentoalveolar trauma prevails in second place (24.8%), representing the lesion in the periodontal tissue and in the male sex in 6.6% between the ages of 6 years in 3.5%. Periodontal disease is less prevalent in dental emergencies by 5.6%, the most frequent being gingivitis, predominating in males by 3% between the ages of 11 to 12 years 1.9%. Pulp diseases are one of the most prevalent dental emergencies, representing 48.2%, with alveolar abscesses predominating and 11.7% in males between 7 to 8 years of age, 6.3%. Odontogenic facial cellulite represents 22.5% of dental emergencies, predominating in males in 14.8% between ages 7 to 8 years in 8%. Conclusions: Dental emergencies in children are caused by pulpal diseases, the most frequent being alveolar abscesses and in males and between the ages of 7 to 8 years.