Teeth fracture among visually impaired and sighted children of 12 and 15 years age groups of Udaipur city, India - a comparative study

Abstract

Prevalence of traumatic dental injuries in a group of individuals with visual impairment was higher than that of sighted. This should alert caregivers to carry out a profound investigation of the events and suggest methods to reduce this type of morbidity.

Prevalence of Traumatic Dental Injuries among Blind School Children in South Karnataka

“…Studies assessing prevalence of TDI among visually impaired children also have found wide variation ranging from 9% to 32.5% [5,6,8,9]. However prevalence of TDI in our study is consistent with Bhat et al (32.5%) [6] & Agarwal et al (34.95%) [8].…”

“…However prevalence of TDI in our study is consistent with Bhat et al (32.5%) [6] & Agarwal et al (34.95%) [8]. Children with disabilities are more prone for TDI compared to their normal counterpart [5,8].…”

“…Also studies have concluded that frequency of TDI increases proportionately in relation to increased overjet. This positive correlation is also seen in visually impaired children [6,8]. In the present study 87.5 % of visually impaired students with abnormal overjet had teeth fracture which correlates with earlier studies by Bhat et al (70.4 %) [6] & Agarwal et al (85.7%) [8].…”

“…This value is higher than Agarwal et al who found that up to 78.6% of visually impaired children had TDI [8]. But in contrast to above reports Bhat et al have reported that fracture teeth was independent of lip coverage [6]. It has been suggested that protective effect of lip closure along with adequate contact of maxillary & mandibular teeth in normal occlusion decreases the impact force of trauma [1,3,4].…”

“…This male predisposition pattern can be explained by the fact that boys engage more in leisurely physical activities, aggressive sports & also greater risk taking behavior than girls. Also girls are said to be more mature in their behavior [1,2,3,4,6].…”