Iatrogenic soft tissue injuries in patients undergoing various dental procedures -a survey among the dental practionners

Background: Iatrogenic injury can be defined as any trauma that has been induced by the dentist's activity, manner, or therapy. Any dental treatment during any phase can become iatrogenic. Dental iatrogenic treatment can produce injury to either on hard tissues or soft tissues of the oral cavity. Several examples of dental iatrogenic errors include traumatically induced dental materials and instruments, root perforations, bur perforations and soft tissue lacerations, apical extent of root canal fillings, overhanging restorations, injury to pulp, spherulocytosis, papillary hyperplasia, nerve injuries etc. Clinicians should make every effort to minimise iatrogenic injuries to the soft tissues. Objective: The aim of the present study is to investigate the type of dental procedures likely to cause soft tissue iatrogenic injuries in patients undergoing varoius dental procedures, and to identify the most common anatomical site of injury. Materials and Methods: A survey was conducted among 100 dental practitioners of Saveetha Dental College, Chennai. A self administered questionnaire was distributed and descriptive data in terms of percentage was analysed. Result: The age group of the respondents ranged from 20-27 years. Most of the respondents had an accurate understanding of the term ‘iatrogenic’. A majority of them identified mechanical damage to be common and considered mucosa and gingiva to be the likely site damaged during tooth preparation. Most of them chose that iatrogenic errors were common during crown preparation. Iatrogenic errors have been caused by a majority of the practitioners mainly while using burs and the commonly affected site being the mucosa and gingiva. The commonest preventive strategy employed by most dentists was careful handling of materials and instruments. Conclusion: There is a need to know and increase awareness among dental practitioners about the role of iatrogenic factors for the successful outcome of any dental therapy, which unfortunately is ignored for a long time. Hence this study has been designed to identify the common iatrogenic errors and injuries that can occur during various dental treatment procedures and the common site of injury by the dental practitioners