The Burden of Dental Emergencies, Oral-Maxillofacial, and Cranio-Maxillofacial Injuries in U.S. Military Personnel
Abstract
The Department of Defense Individual Medical Readiness system was implemented in 2006. Continual high numbers of DE prompted the inclusion of Dental Readiness as one of six conditions that determine service members readiness and their ability to deploy. Additionally, even with the advances in body armor, Cranio- and Oral-maxillofacial (CMF, OMF) injuries continue to negatively impact mission objectives. This review reveals that the burden of DE and OMF injuries to commanders approximates 12 of all troops deployed to hostile environments. However, the data have a great variability due to non-standardized methodologies used. Advances in technology should be leveraged to perform research that will develop more sensitive methods to predict DE. Quality data concerning the incidence of DE, CMF, and OMF injuries is required for planners to insure that redundancy of capability is taken into account due to these types of casualties. A standardized methodology for routine data collection, across all services is necessary to reduce variability and provide useful data to be implemented to the Dental Readiness assessment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 30, 2018
- Accession Number
- AD1072412
Entities
People
- Iram Qureshi
- John Simecek
- Laura Lee
- Noel Dickens
- Sylvain Cardin
- Tim Mitchener
Organizations
- Naval Medical Research Unit—San Antonio