Prevalence of dental trauma in individuals with special needs participating in local Special Olympics games.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

The Special Olympics Special Smiles (SOSS) Program provides oral health screening and data collection for athletes with intellectual disabilities who participate in Special Olympics events.

AIM:

This study evaluated the prevalence and severity of dental trauma among Special Olympics athletes with intellectual disabilities who participated in the 2016 Israeli Special Olympics games.

METHODS:

A free voluntary dental examination was offered to all participating athletes. The examination was performed by volunteer dentists who completed a standard SOSS examination form, which included questions on oral health status and evidence of dental trauma in the anterior teeth. The dental traumas were categorized by a modified clinical version of the Ellis classification for dental traumas, and they were combined into three main categories according to their severity. Chi-square analysis was used to find differences between gender and age in regard to the prevalence of dental trauma.

RESULTS:

The sample consisted of 249 athletes with intellectual disabilities aged 10-65 years (mean 29.2 ± 11.24). The prevalence of dental trauma was 27.3%, of which 9.64% were categorized as mild and 17.67% as severe. Most of the traumas (94%) involved the maxillary incisors.

CONCLUSIONS:

The relatively high prevalence of dental trauma in special needs athletes revealed by this study's findings supports the need for using preventive measures, such as mouth guards, during sport activities.

• Authors: Nurit Dagon, Sigalit Blumer, Benjamin Peretz, Tal Ratson
• Journal: Special care in dentistry : official publication of the American Association of Hospital Dentists, the Academy of Dentistry for the Handicapped, and the American Society for Geriatric Dentistry (Spec Care Dentist) Vol. 39 Issue 1 Pg. 34-38 (Jan 2019) ISSN: 1754-4505 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 30431180 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © 2018 Special Care Dentistry Association and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Aged
• Athletes
• Athletic Injuries (etiology)
• Child
• Female
• Humans
• Intellectual Disability
• Israel (epidemiology)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Prevalence
• Severity of Illness Index
• Tooth Injuries (epidemiology)