Aetiology and pattern of dentoalveolar injuries in patients at armed forces institute of dentistry, Rawalpindi

To determine the aetiology and pattern of dentoalveolar injuries in patients presenting to oral surgery department of Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry, Rawalpindi. Cross sectional study. Oral Surgery department, Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry, Rawalpindi. September 2008 to August 2009. One hundred and thirty eight consecutive patients presenting to oral surgery department with dentoalveolar injuries irrespective of the age and gender were included in the study. Edentulous patients, patients with only soft tissue injury and patients with other maxillofacial injuries but no dentoalveolar injury were excluded. The included patients were asked about the cause of injury and the pattern of injury was noted clinically. This information was collected on specially designed proformas. All injuries were classified according to Andersean's classification. Out of these 138 patients, 111 [80.4%] were males with a male to female ratio of 4.1:1. The age ranged from 2-65 years with a mean age of 21.22 years. RTA was the most common cause of injury and was seen in 58 [42%] patients. Followed by fall noted in 52 [37.7%] patients. Other causes observed were contact sports in 7 [5.1%], violence in 4 [2.9%] and work place accident in 7 [5.1%] patients. Regarding pattern, the most common type of injury was avulsion and subluxation followed by crown fractures, luxation, root fractures and tooth displacements in various directions. Males especially the young lot was more affected by dentoalveolar trauma. RTA and fall remain the main causes of these injuries in our population. Avulsion, subluxation and luxation were the most common patterns of trauma observed. Maxillary incisors were the most commonly affected teeth in these traumatic episodes

Frequency of hepatitis b and c in oral and maxilofacial surgery patients at Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry

To see the frequency of hepatitis B virus [HBV] and hepatitis C virus [HCV] carriers in oral and maxillofacial surgical patients. Descriptive study. This study was carried out at Oral and Maxillofacial surgery department of Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry [AFID], Rawalpindi from June 2006 to July 2007. Patients who were admitted at Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department during the study period for any kind of maxillofacial surgery were screened before operation for HBV, and HCV. A total of 842 patients were screened. Eighty percent were males and 20% were females with age ranging from 5-70 years. HBV was positive in 7% patients and HCV was positive in 9% of patients. The high frequency of HBV and HCV in maxillofacial surgical patients suggests a routine screening for HBsAg and anti-HCV for all patients prior to surgery