Traumatic injuries to the anterior teeth among South Kanara school children--a prevalence study

The present study was carried out to assess the prevalence and distribution of the traumatic injuries to anterior teeth among 4500 school children in the age group of 3 to 16 years from South Kanara District of Karnataka. Information concerning sex, age, cause of trauma, number of injured teeth, type of the teeth, lip competence, terminal plane relationship and the molar relationship were recorded. A total of 238 cases (5.29%) had incisor and canine fractures, which was more prevalent among the boys (72.27%) than the girls (27.73%). The leading cause of injury was undefined falls and the maxillary central incisors were commonly affected in both the primary and the permanent dentition. Enamel fracture was the most common form of injury noted. Class 1 Type 2 and Class 2 division 1 molar relationship cases exhibited significantly very high number of fractured teeth. Only 1.68% of the cases with traumatized teeth had undergone treatment.