[Dental injury associated with general anesthesia and the preventive measures]

It is generally recognized that dental injury during general anesthesia is an important problem. We retrospectively evaluated the profiles of dental injuries during general anesthesia and associated factors for the development of dental injury.

From January 1999 to December 2008, all medical records of the patients with dental injury during general anesthesia were reviewed.

Of 30,845 patients who underwent general anesthesia in the period, the dental injury developed in 110 patients (0.36%) during general anesthesia. The incidence of dental injury was higher in patients above 60 years of age, The patients who had received mouth guards had significantly lower incidence of dental injury compared with those without mouth guards (0.06% vs. 0.37%, P < 0.05). The left upper incisors were involved most commonly in the development of dental injury, and the timing of dental injury was most frequent at the time of tracheal intubation.