Case Report

Year : 2020 | Volume : 5 | Issue : 1 | Page : 16-18

Esthetic Management of Self‐inflicted Dental Trauma in a Child Patient

Arundhati Goyal, Kusum Bharti

Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, K. D. Dental College and Hospital, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India

Address for correspondence:

Dr. Arundhati Goyal,

Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, K. D. Dental College and Hospital, Mathura ‐ 281 006, Uttar Pradesh, India.

E‐mail: drarundhatigoyal@gmail.com

Abstract

Self-mutilating habits are those in which the patient enjoys deliberately damaging himself/herself. Children have a habit of placing foreign objects into their mouth giving them a temporary feeling of relief. This case report describes an atypical case of a 4-year-old female patient with an anomalous habit of chewing pencil which led to the formation of window-like facets and trauma in primary maxillary anterior teeth. Suspected etiology was lack of mother’s attention which made patient anxious and indulge into such deleterious habit. As a result, this habit turned into traumatic injury as she continued to bite deliberately on the pencil tip to suppress anxiety. The article highlights the importance of taking complete history from the parents of pediatric patients with any suspected abnormal habit that should not be neglected.

Keywords: Dental trauma, masochistic habit, primary teeth

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

How to cite this article: Goyal A, Bharti K. Esthetic management of self-inflicted dental trauma in a child patient. Int J Pedod Rehabil 2020;5:16-8.