%0 Journal Article
%T Provisional Crown Dislodgement during Scuba Diving: A Case of Barotrauma
%A Meenal Nitin Gulve
%A Nitin Dilip Gulve
%J Case Reports in Dentistry
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/749142
%X Changes in ambient pressure, for example, during flying, diving, or hyperbaric oxygen therapy, can lead to barotrauma. Although it may seem that this issue was neglected in dental education and research in recent decades, familiarity with and understanding of these facts may be of importance for dental practitioners. We report the case of a patient who experienced barotrauma involving dislodgement of a provisional crown during scuba diving. Patients who are exposed to pressure changes as a part of their jobs or hobbies and their dentists should know the causes of barotrauma. In addition, the clinician must be aware of the possible influence of pressure changes on the retention of dental components. 1. Introduction In recent years it has become increasingly common to go to a tropical destination for a holiday [1]. There is often an opportunity to dive. Diving with self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) has witnessed explosive growth in the past decade, as 8.5 million people are certified in the United States alone. Around three million Europeans are thought to be recreational scuba divers, diving to depths up to around 40 meters sea water (msw). Additionally, there are approximately 800 professional civilians and 700 military divers registered in Germany as well as some 500 compressed air (caisson) workers, for example, for tunnel or bridge construction work [2]. With the increasing number of professional and leisure divers, the dentist may encounter related oral conditions that require immediate treatment. Although rare, dental emergencies while diving have been recognized as a potential cause of a diver suddenly becoming incapacitated, jeopardizing the safety of the affected person as well as others [3]. It is inevitable that the dental practitioner will have patients who participate in diving and they should be aware of a number of problems that a diver can experience that are associated with the teeth and related structures. An oral (dental or nondental) pain caused by change in barometric pressure in an otherwise asymptomatic organ is known as barodontalgia. The name of this dental pain was given the prefix ˇ°aeroˇ± (i.e., aerodontalgia) and was reported for the first time as an in-flight physiologic and pathologic phenomenon at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1940s, with the appearance of SCUBA, many in-flight manifestations caused by barometric changes were found to be associated with diving as well. Consequently, the prefix was changed to ˇ°Baroˇ± [4, 5]. Barodontalgia has been experienced on one or more occasions by 9.2% to
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/crid/2013/749142/