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The popularity of bicycling is reflected in the number of cycling-related oral and maxillofacial injuries. Five hundred and sixty-two injured bicyclists (10.3% of all trauma patients) were registered at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Innsbruck, Austria, between 1991 and 1996, accounting for 31% of all sports-related accidents and 48.4% of all traffic accidents. A review of the patient records revealed more severe injury profiles in sixty mountainbikers, with 55% facial bone fractures, 22% dentoalveolar trauma and 23% soft tissue injuries, compared to 502 street cyclists showing 50.8% dentoalveolar trauma, 34.5% facial bone fractures and 14% soft tissue lesions. The dominant fracture site in bicyclists was the zygoma (30.8%), whereas mountainbikers sustained an impressive 15.2% LeFort I, II and III fractures. Condyle fractures were more common in bicyclists, with 18.8% compared to 10.8% in mountainbikers. Reduction of facial injuries due to cycling-related accidents needs appropriate design of helmets with faceguards and compulsory helmet use for all cyclists, and particularly mountainbikers.

Appropriate design of helmets with faceguards will reduce the incidence of facial injuries caused by cycling-related accidents and incentives are needed for making helmet use compulsory for all cyclists, particularly for mountainbikers.