The clinical and therapeutic management of odontogenic facial cellulitis in pediatric dentistry : a retrospective study

Introduction : The odontogenic facial cellulitis is an infection of the cellular adipose tissue caused by a dental infection. It is an emergency in pediatric dentistry. This study aims to increase the knowledge of this severe complication of dental caries by describing its clinical and therapeutic characteristics.
Material and Methods : This retrospective study took place at the pediatric dentistry service of the Hôpital Des Enfants Reine Fabiola in Brussels. The data were collected between October 2014 and October 2015, among children aged between 3 and 16 years who presented a facial cellulitis. Age, sex, cellulitis type, therapeutic care, number of hospitalizations and follow up were collected.
Results : Among 26 children with facial cellulitis, 22 fitted the inclusion criteria with a male predominance of 69%. The average age was 8.3 years and almost 1 child out of 3 was hospitalized, with a maxillary involvement in 72% of the cases. However, maxillary and mandibular cellulitis were found in the same proportion among the children. 50% of the patients who came in emergency had already taken antibiotics for a dental infection before.
Conclusion : Some hospitalizations could probably been avoided with better antibiotic choice and dosage. This study confirms the importance of setting up an operating protocol within our department and the need for immediate management of the dental pathology in question.

Keywords:odontogenic facial cellulitis, dental infection, pediatric dentistry

Accessibility:Closed