Knowledge of Italian Dentists Concerning the Management of Dento-alveolar Trauma

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine italian dentists' knowledge of emergency management of dento-alveolar trauma. METHODS: The evaluation was carried out using questionnaires that were designed especially for this purpose. The questionnaire was composed by 2 parts: the first part consisted of questions on professional data, including training background; the second part consisted in 9 questions on how to treat traumatic injuries. The survey included topics on avulsion, extrusion, dental fracture, root fracture and splinting. A group of 134 professionals randomly selected were interviewed. RESULTS: The dentists were aged between 24 and 80 years, and they were 40 years old on average. 85 of them were males and 49 were females; as far as their studies are concerned, only 30 attended a postgraduate traumatology course. The percentage of correct answers was different for each question. Out of 1206 questions, 988 (81.9%) were answered correctly. Of these, the question concerning coronal fracture was the one with the highest number of correct answers (98%), while questions concerned the time of use of splinting and the root fracture treatment were mistaken by 40% of the dentists. CONCLUSIONS: The survey demonstrated that the knowledge in the traumatology field is not homogeneous. The dentists were shown to have a good general level of familiarity with this subject, although this was seen not to be true in some limited areas.The technique which mostly seems to lack of experience and knowledge in traumatology is the correct use and planning of the orthodontic therapy both in the re-implant and in the fractures of the roots cases. Further studies will be needed to monitor and plan educational improvements aimed to develop supplementary knowledge in this specific field.