Management of maxillary alveolar bone fracture and severely intruded maxillary central incisor: report of a case

An Alternative Approach Using Circummandibular Wiring for Treatment of Dentoalveolar Fractures in Children: A Case Report

The prevalence of dentoalveolar injuries in children is approximately 25%, with falls from own height being one of the main etiologies. Diagnosis is based on the clinical evaluation associated with complementary imaging tests. The treatment of choice depends on the type of damage and structure affected. For alveolar process fractures, closed reduction and semi-rigid dental splinting for 4 to 6 weeks is generally satisfactory. However, some cases, such as severe segmental fractures, require open treatment to ensure adequate reduction and stabilization of the displaced alveolar segment, which is usually achieved by titanium miniplates and screws. Nevertheless, there are situations where this type of fixation is not possible, requiring alternative methods. Therefore, this article describes a surgical technique performed by open reduction, associating semi-rigid dental splint and circummandibular wiring in pediatric patient diagnosed with dentoalveolar fracture through clinical examination (with bone fracture displacement) and tomography. The technique promoted a good prognostic to the patient, proving to be a viable alternative for treating dentoalveolar fractures.

Epistaxis in dental and maxillofacial practice: a comprehensive review

The lifetime incidence of epistaxis in dental and maxillofacial practice has been reported to be as high as 60% and can be caused by dental implant placement, Le Fort I osteotomy, intranasal supernumerary tooth, odontogenic tumors, blood disorders and maxillofacial trauma. Most epistaxis cases are minor and easily managed with direct compression on the nares for 10 minutes. For more significant or recurrent epistaxis, other techniques might include electrocautery, anterior or posterior nasal packing, or Foley catheter balloon. For patients with refractory epistaxis, cauterization of the sphenopalatine artery under endonasal endoscopy or embolization of the internal maxillary artery should be performed. Epistaxis control is required in patients diagnosed with inherited or acquired bleeding disorders or with drug-induced coagulopathies during dental procedures. In these cases, hemostatic system adjustment and hemostasis achieved by local and adjunctive methods are required. Dentists and maxillofacial surgeons must be aware that the nasal cavity is a potential source of perioperative hemorrhage. Depending on the invasiveness of the dental intervention, preoperative involvement of the hematologist and cardiologist is usually necessary to reverse anticoagulation or to cease anticoagulant therapy.

Dentoalveolar Fractures: New Orthodontic Protocol Proposal and Pilot Study

The goal of fracture treatment that includes the dentoalveolar process is to obtain the anatomic bone healing and the pre-injury occlusion restoration with functional and aesthetic recovery, avoiding dental or periodontal lesions. Fractures activates, in the damaged tissue, the Regional Acceleratory Phenomenon, a physiological healing process that can also be activated during orthodontic overloads. Orthodontic treatment in the traumatized area could exploit this phenomenon in order to sustain the cellular activity.The aim of this study is to propose a treatment protocol for dentoalveolar fractures based on the use of orthodontics in order to sustain the physiological healing process known as Regional Acceleratory Phenomenon.The authors present 2 cases of an 18 year old woman and 23 year old man affected by dentoalveolar fracture. The operative protocol the authors applied foresaw three steps of treatment: orthodontic brackets application, surgery, orthodontic treatment.The patients showed complete healing at the 3 months follow-up and were treated up to 18 months for further orthodontic treatment.The operative protocol proposed by the Authors appears to be a rational choice since it allows a single orthodontic device to be an "active splinting system", with fast application time, good acceptance by the patient, low complications rate; moreover, it produces any planned dental movements for further orthodontic treatments.

Diagnosis of alveolar and root fractures in macerated canine maxillae: a comparison between two different CBCT protocols

OBJECTIVES

To compare two small-field-of-view (FOV) CBCT protocols with different voxel sizes and number of frames for the diagnosis of root and alveolar fractures in macerated canine maxillae.

METHODS

80 incisor teeth from the canine species were inserted in 80 anterior alveolar sockets of 20 canine maxillae. An operator randomly divided each maxilla site (80 sites in total) into 4 equal groups of 20 sites: 1 (sound tooth and non-fractured alveolar socket); 2 (sound tooth and fractured alveolar socket); 3 (fractured root and non-fractured alveolar socket); and 4 (fractured root and fractured alveolar socket). The CBCT images were obtained using two different protocols: normal (N) (voxel 0.20 mm, 400 frames and radiation exposure 5.6 mGy) and high definition (HD) (voxel 0.15 mm, 500 frames and radiation exposure 7.0 mGy).

RESULTS

Sensitivity numbers for alveolar fractures were lower than specificity, resulting in comparable areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) for both protocols. Sensitivity, specificity and AUC for N and HD protocols were very similar for root fractures. When comparing AUC for both N and HD protocols by submitting them to Student's t-test, the comparison among the curves produced statistically non-significant results for alveolar fractures and root fractures likewise.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrated that the elected protocol for the diagnosis of root and alveolar fractures was N. This protocol allowed similar diagnosis results than HD protocol; however, with a lower amount of radiation exposure for the patient (5.6 mGy for N vs 7.0 mGy for HD).

Diagnosis of alveolar and root fractures: an in vitro study comparing CBCT imaging with periapical radiographs

Objective

To compare periapical radiograph (PR) and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in the diagnosis of alveolar and root fractures.

Material and Methods

Sixty incisor teeth (20 higid and 40 with root fracture) from dogs were inserted in 60 anterior alveolar sockets (40 higid and 20 with alveolar fracture) of 15 macerated canine maxillae. Each fractured socket had a root fractured tooth inserted in it. Afterwards, each maxilla was submitted to PR in two different vertical angulation incidences, and to CBCT imaging with a small field of view (FOV) and high-definition protocol. Images were randomized and posteriorly analyzed by two oral and maxillofacial radiologists two times, with a two-week interval between observations.

Results

Sensitivity and specificity values were good for root fractures for PR and CBCT. For alveolar fractures, sensitivity ranged from 0.10 to 0.90 for PR and from 0.50 to 0.65 for CBCT. Specificity for alveolar fractures showed lower results than for root fractures for PR and CBCT. Areas under the ROC curve showed good results for both PR and CBCT for root fractures. However, results were fair for both PR and CBCT for alveolar fractures. When submitted to repeated measures ANOVA tests, there was a statistically significant difference between PR and CBCT for root fractures. Root fracture intraobserver agreement ranged from 0.90 to 0.93, and alveolar fracture intraobserver agreement ranged from 0.30 to 0.57. Interobserver agreement results were substantial for root fractures and poor/fair for alveolar fractures (0.11 for PR and 0.30 for CBCT).

Conclusion

Periapical radiograph with two different vertical angulations may be considered an accurate method to detect root fractures. However, PR showed poorer results than CBCT for the diagnosis of alveolar fractures. When no fractures are diagnosed in PR and the patient describes pain symptoms, the subsequent exam of choice is CBCT.

Treatment and restoration of adult dentoalveolar trauma: A clinical case report

Adult dentoalveolar trauma most often occurs in the context of sports activities and traffic accidents. Coronal fractures are the most common type of lesion, followed by tooth luxation. We present the case of a 25-year-old woman who suffered alveolar bone damage and coronal fractures of the upper incisors, with extrusive luxation of the right central incisor, as the result of a fall. On the first visit, manual reduction of the buccal plate was carried out under local anesthesia, with repositioning of the right central incisor and splinting to the neighboring teeth. Composites were used to restore the coronal fractures. After one month, both upper central incisors and the right lateral incisor were subjected to endodontic treatment. Internal bleaching of the right lateral incisor was also carried out, due to pigmentation secondary to pulp necrosis. At follow-up 5 months later, the alveolar bone fracture was seen to have healed. Definitive anterior restorative treatment with porcelain veneers was therefore carried out. After two years the patient remains asymptomatic and in good dental condition. Key words:Dental trauma, extrusive luxation, dento-alveolar fracture, esthetic restoration.