1. Trends in facial injury
- Author
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Iain Hutchison, Patrick Magennis, Andrew J. Leigh Brown, and Jonathan Shepherd
- Subjects
Adult ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Facial bone ,Adolescent ,Population ,Poison control ,Health Promotion ,Violence ,Suicide prevention ,Occupational safety and health ,Injury prevention ,medicine ,Humans ,education ,Facial Injuries ,General Environmental Science ,education.field_of_study ,business.industry ,Incidence (epidemiology) ,Accidents, Traffic ,General Engineering ,Human factors and ergonomics ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,United Kingdom ,Emergency medicine ,General Earth and Planetary Sciences ,Medical emergency ,business ,Research Article - Abstract
Next week 200 of Britain's oral and maxillofacial surgeons will visit secondary schools to warn pupils about the risks of facial injury from drinking and fighting and, with the help of patients, to show them the consequences of such injuries. What are those risks, and how may they be prevented? In few places is the effectiveness of legislation on seat belts and drinking and driving more obvious than in oral and maxillofacial trauma. From 1977 to 1987 the proportion of patients with maxillofacial fractures sustained in road accidents fell by 34%,1 and rates of facial bone fracture sustained in road accidents fell from 6.2 to 4.1 per 100 000 population. Violent crime, however, more than compensated for this decrease, and, although the incidence of serious injury such as complex pan-facial fractures decreased, the overall incidence of facial injury rose from 20 to 24 per 100 000 population.1 The proportion of injuries sustained in assaults increased from 40% in 1977 …
- Published
- 1998
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