Traumatic dental injury incidence of unseen children

There is a lack of information about the incidence of dental trauma in Turkish children with disabilities and those in detention centers. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of dental trauma in two groups estimated to have high-potential risk, young prisoners and disabled children, compared with healthy peers.

A total of 530 children were included in the study. The participants were divided into three groups: Disability Group (n=238), Imprisoned Children Group (n=231) and school children (n=61) as the Control Group. The occurrence of dental trauma was evaluated according to age and gender. Statistical evaluations were done by using SPSS statistics-22 programme.

The mean age of all participants was 14.85 ± 3.43 years. Males predominated (75.8%). In the Imprisoned Children Group, not only maxillary and mandibular incisors but also canines had dental trauma. Time of imprisonment and education level did not have any significant effect on dental trauma occurrence among children in detention centers. In the Disability Group, the disability type did not have any significant effect. In the Control Group, maxillary central incisors were the most traumatized teeth. The incidence of dental trauma was 11.3% in the Imprisoned Children Group, 4.6% in the Disability Group, and 9.8% in the Control Group. There was a significant difference among the three groups (p:0.027; p<0.05).

Dental trauma incidence may differ among disabled, imprisoned, and healthy children. Hence, children from different parts of the community should be included in epidemiological studies to provide a more accurate incidence of dental trauma.