Prevalence and prevention of dental injuries in young taekwondo athletes in Croatia.

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of dental and facial injuries, the habit of wearing mouthguard and the awareness regarding injury prevention and first aid after tooth avulsion among young taekwondo athletes in Croatia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A survey on a sample of 484 taekwondo athletes was conducted, which included 271 male (56%) and 213 female (44%) athletes aged between 8 and 28 years. The questionnaire submitted to the athletes contained 15 questions about dental trauma, use of mouthguard, dental trauma prevention, level of awareness about tooth avulsion and replantation and disturbances associated with mouthguard use. Collected data were evaluated according to gender, age groups and duration of actively engagement in taekwondo. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were used for comparisons between groups. RESULTS: From the survey 300 (62%) of 484 athletes had sustained one serious injury and 103 (21%) had sustained an orofacial injury, while 194 (40%) had observed another player sustaining a dental injury. Higher number of orofacial injuries was observed in males (24%) than in females (18%). Furthermore, 98 (20%) athletes have experienced one or more dental injuries, and out of these 98 suffering dental injury 60 were male (61%) and 38 were female (39%). The frequency of orofacial injuries in the older group (42%) is higher than in three younger groups (younger cadets 25%; cadets 13%; juniors 20%) (p<0.05). Mouthguard wearing was recorded in 465 athletes (96%), 47.1% of them wear stock mouthguard, 47.6% wear boil and bite mouthguard, but only 5.3% were custom-made mouthguards. Most of them (96%) consider that mouthguards are useful for injury prevention in taekwondo. CONCLUSION: The results of this survey show that dental and orofacial injuries occur in taekwondo in all age groups but mostly in the senior group. Taekwondo players know the importance of mouthguard use, but only 5% use custom made mouthguards. This is not adequate for dental injury prevention and highlights the important role of dental professional in education of athletes for advocating the use of custom made mouthguards.

[Analysis of certain oral health parameters in children with disabilities].

The first permanent molars which show the presence of congenital malocclusions, orthodontic treatment need and habits were studied in children with disabilities and healthy children. The examination covered 80 disabled children and 80 healthy ones (control group) of the age from 3 to 17 (mean age 10) years. Caries of the first permanent molars, bad habits and malocclusions were more common in children with disabilities than in healthy children. It was established that higher orthodontic treatment need was in children with disabilities who were less covered with orthodontic care.

[Angle class I malocclusion in primary dentition and findings in permanent dentition--a follow-up study].

The aim of the study was to examine stability and changes in Angle Class I malocclusion from deciduous to permanent dentition in 168 subjects. All the subjects had Class I malocclusion in deciduous dentition, and were examined by the same orthodontist on two occasions during deciduous and permanent dentition. None of the subjects had received orthodontic therapy in the meantime. The results showed considerable changes from primary to permanent dentition. Crowding in primary dentition was retained in permanent dentition in 45.2% cases. In 16.2% cases it changed into normocclusion and 38.6% subjects developed other types of malocclusion. Open bite was retained in permanent dentition in 17.8% cases and in 17.8% subjects transformed into normocclusion. 64.4% subjects developed other types of malocclusion. Cross bite was retained in permanent dentition in 21.4% cases and in 28.6% subjects changed to normocclusion. Other types of malocclusion in permanent dentition developed in 50% subjects. In 30.8% of cases finding of premature loss of deciduous teeth was accompanied by extraction of some permanent teeth. Normocclusion was retained in 19.2% cases while 50% of children developed some type of malocclusion. Crowding, which was retained in permanent dentition in 45.2% cases, showed the highest degree of stability. Children with this type of anomaly in primary dentition displayed the highest frequency of total malocclusions (83.3% subjects). Out of all anomalies in primary dentition, cross bite most frequently switched to normal occlusion in permanent dentition (in 28.6% cases).