ToothSOS for emergency care of traumatic dental injuries

Dental trauma is common and most prevalent in children and adolescents. The role of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of dental trauma is of utmost importance for the survival of primary and permanent teeth. Therefore, both the public and the dental community should be educated on the management of traumatic dental injuries. Early intervention may significantly improve the prognosis of an injured tooth and therefore can restore function, proper development, and a patient's smile to its original state. The first few hours following injury are critical in determining the prognosis of an injured tooth. Many studies have indicated that dental practitioners and the public lack education in proper trauma management.

An effective way to educate patients and professionals is through articles, lectures, and technology. The digitization of health care has shown a shift in the delivery of information from in-person to remote and patient-generated. The benefits of this shift include the following: increased patient education, reduced healthcare costs, improvement in general patient health, and better treatment outcomes. Mobile software technologies have already been used in many fields of medicine. As such, an accessible and easy-to-use mobile application could prove to be a valuable tool for sharing information on general medical issues as well as on dental trauma. 

Incorporating technology into dental public health education may help share preventive strategies and improve treatment outcomes. Launched in April 2018 under the initiative and presidency of Dr. Nestor Cohenca, ToothSOS is a free service created, offered, and sponsored by the IADT. It aims to deliver information about traumatic tooth injuries to the public, including patients, parents, educators, and professionals. The ToothSOS is user-friendly and available for free download on both Apple and Android devices. In emergency and non-emergency situations, the app can be a useful resource for the lay person dealing with traumatic dental injuries as it provides step-by-step guidance for various dental injuries, such as knocked-out, displaced, pushed-in, loosened, and broken teeth, as well as injuries to the skin, lips, gums, jaws, and joints, before seeing a dentist (Figure 1). The app also contains information for dental professionals and provides the most current therapeutic guidelines for treatment of traumatic dental injuries.

In a recent study, the total number of ToothSOS downloads over the 2 years was 47,725. Europe was the territory with the greatest number of downloads followed by the United States and Canada, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa, the Middle East, and India. The study concluded that further attempts and public campaigns should be made in order to increase the visibility of the app. Dental professionals should encourage patients and communities to use the app in order to increase awareness for the prevention and proper emergency management of traumatic dental injuries. 

Khehra A, Cohenca N, Cehreli ZC, Levin L. The International Association of Dental Traumatology ToothSOS Mobile App: A Two-Year Report. Dent Traumatol. 2021 Feb;37(1):145-150.

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