Is dental trauma more prevalent in maltreated children? A comparative Study in Southern Brazil

Although a high prevalence of head and neck trauma has been reported in maltreated children and adolescents, most of these studies focused on record-based analyses, and only a few used control groups.

To assess the presence of dental trauma in maltreated children in comparison with children without a history of maltreatment.

A cross-sectional study with 68 maltreated children and 204 age, sex-, and school-matched control participants was conducted in Pelotas, a Southern Brazilian city. Socioeconomic and demographic data were collected. Clinical examinations were performed to evaluate dental trauma (O'Brien Index) and dental caries (WHO criteria). Fisher's exact and chi-squared tests were used for intergroup comparisons of socioeconomic and clinical variables. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to obtain adjusted odds ratios (OR).

The prevalence of dental trauma was 23.53% (n = 16) among maltreated children and 14.22% (n = 29) in the comparative group. After adjustment, the occurrence of dental trauma showed association with child maltreatment, with an OR of 2.14 (95% confidence interval 1.03-4.44) for maltreated children in comparison with children in the comparative group (P = 0.04).

Maltreated children presented with more dental trauma than those with no history of maltreatment.