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An evaluation of dental and maxillofacial trauma in a level 1 trauma center in Israel was carried out to assess the causes of trauma and the relationship between the injuries to the patient's age, gender and ethnicity. Analysis was based on data from the Israel Trauma Registry. Patients hospitalized in a level 1 trauma center from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2005 were analyzed according to age, gender, time, place, ethnicity and cause of injury. Files of 22 558 trauma patients were reviewed. Maxillofacial and tooth injuries were separated and further analyzed according to the above parameters. Maxillofacial or dental injuries were observed in 1668 (7.4%) of the trauma patients, caused by motor vehicle accidents (39.2%), falls (30.9%), and intentional injuries (21.2%). Most occurred on the street/road (46.5%), at home (18.8%), and in public buildings (12.4%). Arab patients suffered more from vehicle accidents while Jewish patients presented more intentional injuries. Men were hospitalized three times more than women, and young people were at greater risk. The most frequent age of trauma was 19-28 years (27.6%). Ethnic differences were particularly noticeable for intentional injuries and vehicle accidents. This emphasizes that a larger percentage of the Arab population suffered from dental and maxillofacial injuries. Further dental health education and training for primary caregivers are warranted.

To explore the association between incisal trauma and occlusal characteristics using oral examination and health interview data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1988-1994 (NHANES III). Incisal trauma examinations were performed on 15 364 individuals 6-50 years of age using an ordinal scale developed by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Occlusal examinations were performed on 13 057 individuals 8-50 years of age. We fitted separate multivariate logistic regression models for maxillary and mandibular incisor trauma adjusting for socio-demographic variables (age, gender, race-ethnicity) and occlusal characteristics (overbite, overjet, open bite). 23.45% of all individuals evidenced trauma on at least one incisor, with trauma more than four times more prevalent on maxillary (22.59%) than on mandibular incisors (4.78%). Males (OR = 1.67) had greater odds of trauma than females; Whites (OR = 1.37) and non-Hispanic Blacks (OR = 1.37) had greater odds of trauma than Mexican-Americans. The odds of trauma increased with age, peaked from age 21 to 30 (OR = 2.92), and declined. As overjet increased, so did the odds of trauma. Compared to individuals with < or =0-mm overjet, odds of trauma increased from 1-3 mm (OR = 1.42) to 4-6 mm (OR = 2.42) to 7-8 mm (OR = 3.24) to >8 mm (OR = 12.47). Trauma to incisors is prevalent but mostly limited to enamel. Trauma to maxillary incisors is associated with overjet, gender, race-ethnicity, and age, while trauma to mandibular incisors is associated with gender, age, and overbite., (Copyright Blackwell Munksgaard, 2004.)

A case of ritual mutilation in a fourteen-year-old Ethiopian girl is described. When the girl was three years old she had frequent stomach problems. According to tribal tradition her illness was thought to arise from her mandibular primary canines and these teeth were removed by a medicine man. The extraction damaged the tooth germs of the succedaneous teeth and resulted in deformed permanent canines. This is the first report of a case of dental mutilation from Ethiopia.

A clinical survey of 1466 children of typical South African communities showed a prevalence rate of primary tooth trauma of 15%. Trauma was least common at age 1-2 years (10.7%) and most common at 4-5 years (20.6%). The commonest trauma seen was fracture of enamel only (71.8%) followed by fracture of dentine (11.2%), tooth loss (8.2%) and discolouration without other sign of injury (5.6%).

Traumatic injuries to the teeth are among the most serious of dental conditions, yet little is known about the prevalence of tooth or dental trauma at the national level. The National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR) modified existing indices for specific use in national epidemiologic studies of tooth trauma among both children and adults. The NIDR index was developed not only to track the status of the tooth from sound (no evidence of trauma) through missing due to trauma, but also to reflect selected sequelae of trauma. The index is based on clinical, non-radiographic evidence of tooth inujury and treatment received in the eight permanent incisors, including a positive history of injury obtained from the subject. The trauma assessment index was applied immediately following the caries examination for dentate participants ages 6-50 years old (n=7,707) in Phase 1 of the NHANES III oral examination. This article reports the first national overall and age-specific population-based prevalence of dental trauma among gender, racial, and ethnic groups. There is a higher prevalence of incisal trauma, of both maxillary and mandibular incisors, in males than females, in both the younger and older age groups. The prevalence of incisal trauma of both maxillary and mandibular incisors in whites and blacks in both younger and older age categories is similar. The study found that half of the individuals with trauma had only one incisor tooth classified as having trauma. Males and older age groups showed larger numbers of traumatized teeth. Further study and examination of methodological issues are desirable for additional understanding of incisal trauma in the general population .

Little new evidence on the prevalence of injury to the anterior teeth of children has been reported in the past five years and, in South Africa, trauma to the teeth of children in different ethnic groups has not been compared respectively. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the prevalence of dental trauma using well-defined criteria and to sample a specific age-group. Five regions were chosen and 1035 children in the eleven-year age-group were examined. No statistical significance was found between the ethnic groups related to the amount of injury sustained. For all groups, boys received more injuries than girls. The most common injury was fracture of the enamel of the maxillary central incisor. With 15 percent of the children receiving some level of trauma by age eleven years, this is one of the main dental treatment needs for South African children.