Adnan Babar, Nighat Ara, Syed Gulzar Ali Bukhari.
Odontogenic maxillofacial infections in a tertiary care hospital.
Pak Oral Dental J Jan ;36(3):368-71.

The study was carried out to evaluate aetiology, clinical presentation and management of odontogenic maxillofacial infections (OMI) in a tertiary care hospital. It was a cross sectional, descriptive study and was conducted among 130 male serving soldiers at Military Dental Centre, Combined Military Hospital Malir, Karachi from November 2012 to April 2014. They were evaluated for aetiology and clinical presentation of OMI and were managed either as ‘out’ or inpatient. Data analysis was done by SPSS version 20. Results of the current study exhibited a mean age of patients 28±7 years. All (100%) patients presented with swelling of facial region while 36.9% had severe and 60% had moderate pain associated with swelling. Mean mouth opening at the time of presentation was 24±12 millimeter, and 30.8% patients had fever with mean body temperature of 99.9±.73°F. Most common cause of odontogenic infections was periapical infection due to necrotic dental pulp in 83%, followed by pericoronitis in 13.1% patients. Combined buccal and submandibular spaces were the most commonly involved in OMI (48.5%), followed by buccal space (29.2%). Sixty four (49.2%) patients were treated as inpatient with mean hospital stay of 2 days. Most commonly employed surgical treatment was extraction of tooth with intra-oral incision and drainage of abscess in 69.2% cases. OMI if not treated earlier can end up with grave complications. Despite advanced dental treatment facilities, military soldiers still present with OMI that in many cases require hospitalization for management.

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