The Impact of Traffic Law Enforcement Regulations on the Incidence and Severity of Maxillofacial Injuries

Abstract

Objectives: Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are the main cause of facial injuries in Oman. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the new traffic law enforcement regulations (TLERs) on the incidence and severity of maxillofacial injuries in Oman. Methods: A retrospective longitudinal analytic study was conducted at three tertiary care hospitals in Muscat, Oman. All patients with RTA-related maxillofacial injuries for a five-year period from January 2005 to December 2009 (before the new TLERs) and the five-year period from January 2015 to December 2019 (after the new TLERs) were included in the study. Results: A total of 1127 patients were included in the study. Of these, 646 (57.3%) patients sustained RTA-related maxillofacial injuries before the implementation of the new TLERs compared to 481 (42.7%) after the introduction of TLERs. There was no significant difference in gender sustained injuries between the two study periods. The incidence of injury before the implementation of the TLERs was 22.7 per 100,000 population, which then reduced significantly to 11 per 100,000 after the new TLERs. Overall, there was a significant reduction in the mean facial injury severity score from 3.2 to 2.3 before and after the implementation of the new TLERs, respectively. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the newly introduced TLERs have resulted in a reduction in the incidence and severity of RTA-related maxillofacial injuries. Continuous improvement and reinforcement of TLERs will further help to reduce the burden of these injuries to the society in general and health services in particular.
 Keywords: Law Enforcement; Traffic Accidents; Maxillofacial Injuries; Injury Severity Score; Oman.

Mapping Evidence on the Epidemiology and Cost Associated with Maxillofacial Injury among Adults in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review Protocol

“…Additionally, MI has been identified as one of the commonest forms of injury in gender-based violence [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Maxillofacial injury occurs ubiquitously and has been associated with various risk factors [ 15 , 22 ] such as; demographic characteristics (age, gender) [ 8 , 23 ], substance abuse [ 24 , 25 ], social determinants of health (poverty, neighbourhood, and built environment) [ 26 , 27 ]; economic and gender inequalities [ 21 , 28 , 29 ]; frail criminal justice [ 30 ] and poor regulation of firearms [ 31 ]. The fracture in MI can exist as singular trauma to the orofacial region but often co-exists with other forms of trauma to the patient’s body and has been a significant public health problem globally [ 32 , 33 ].…”