Prevalence and handedness correlates of traumatic injuries to the permanent incisors in 13–17‐year‐old adolescents in Erzurum, Turkey

Abstract

The objectives of the present study were to explore the relationship between dental trauma and handedness, and to assess the prevalence of traumatic injuries to the permanent incisors of 13-17-year-old patients, seeking treatment for various dental conditions in Erzurum, Turkey. A questionnaire focusing on handedness was administered to these patients. Handedness was assessed by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971). Hand preference was divided into two classes for convenience in data analysis: (i) right-handers (GSc from 80 to 100); and (ii) left-handers (GSc from -80 to -100). This study included the 13-17-year-old group patients who had GSc as described above. Thus, the present study was carried out on 2180 (1252 male and 928 female, with a mean age of 14.9 years) out of 2392 patients. The clinical examinations and radiographic assessments were performed in full-designed dental chairs. Preliminary analysis showed no differences in rates of handedness with respect to sex and age. Overall, 10.4% of the patients were left-handers. A total of 292 (13.4%) of 2180 patients examined had one or more traumatized permanent incisors. The proportion of dental trauma was significantly higher in males than in females, 17.41% in males as compared to 7.97% in females; and ratio of the affected males to females was about 2.18. Sex difference in the prevalence of traumatized permanent incisors was statistically significant (P < 0.001). That is, males had a significantly higher risk of dental trauma than females (P < 0.001; odds ratio: 2.49; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.88, 3.23). There was a higher level of traumatized permanent incisors among left-handers than among right-handers. 28.3% of left-handers and 11.7% of right-handers had dental trauma. This difference in the prevalence of traumatized permanent incisors for handedness was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Indeed, left-handers had a significantly higher risk on dental trauma than right-handers (P < 0.001; odds ratio: 3.09; 95% CI 2.23, 4.29). The primary causative factor in the occurrence of trauma was the fall (27.7%). Then came violence and fight as the second most frequent cause of trauma (24%), followed by sports injury (18.8%). Trauma resulting from collisions and traffic accidents were accounted as 13.7 and 11.3% of all cases, respectively. The other causes were 4.5%. In conclusion, the present study suggests that left-handed adolescents have more frequent permanent incisor tooth trauma than right-handed adolescents. Left-handedness, therefore, appears to be a risk factor for trauma in 13-17-year-old adolescents.

Traumatic dental injuries among schoolchildren in Valencia, Spain

“…This result agrees with most previous studies regarding the maxillary central incisors are the most common teeth to receive trauma (3-6, 8-10, 14). The prominent and vulnerable position of the maxillary incisors in the face is responsible for their more frequent involvement in fractures than the lower teeth (15). The most frequent injury setting was falling while playing sports or games which is in agreement with the study recorded by Soriano E.P (4) and similar to other studies (2,3,5).…”

“…Facial trauma can endanger dental health and lead to aesthetic, psychological, social and therapeutic problems (2). Traumatic injuries in permanent teeth have been reported to have a prevalence rate between 6.1% to 58.6% (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). The great variation in reported rates can be attributed to a number of different factors, including types of study, trauma classification, methodology, study size and population, geographical location and differences in cultural behaviour (17).…”

The Genetics of Asymmetry: Whole Exome Sequencing in a Consanguineous Turkish Family with an Overrepresentation of Left-Handedness

“…Another possible criticism of our data could be that it is unclear to what extent an overrepresentation of left-handedness is a specific characteristic of the sample that was investigated in our study or the general population it comes from. While there is no specific published data on handedness in the vicinity ofŞanlı Urfa, studies in Turkish samples indicate that the frequency of left-handedness in Turkey is between 6% and 11% [41][42][43], which is in line with what has been found in other populations worldwide (around 10%). Tan reports the incidence of familial left-handedness in Turkey to be around 28.4% [43], which is lower than the 39.3% that has been reported in a large American sample [44].…”

Prevalência de traumatismo dentário e fatores associados em adolescentes no concelho do Porto

“…Na maioria das vezes ocorre em crianças e adolescentes, podendo estar na origem de problemas sociais, psicológicos, comportamentais, funcionais, estéticos e até financeiros 2,6-10 . Vários autores têm vindo a estudar o traumatismo dentário em adolescentes e as prevalências encontradas variam entre 7,4%-58,6%, dependendo da metodologia de estudo [11][12][13][14][15] , características amostrais 11 , classificação 11,12,16 , dentiç ão analisada 11 , idades avaliadas 11,12,14,16 e diferenças comportamentais e geográficas da populaç ão alvo 4 . O tipo de estudo também influencia os resultados encontrados, sendo que um estudo populacional apresenta evidência epidemioló-gica superior a um estudo clínico/hospitalar 3,4,17 .…”