Causes of accidental injuries to the teeth and jaws.

Almost one half of all the dental accidents recorded during this study occurred when the victim was moving and struck a stationary object. Falls and vehicles were about equally responsible for half of the accidents. Accident proneness seemed to be affected by age and sex with the teenage group reporting the most dental accidents (35.76%) and males reported dental accidents three times as often as females. Of orthodontic patients, 16.43 percent had a history of dental accidents in contrast to about five percent of the general population. From the limited data available, approximately three fourths of the persons reporting said no seat belts were available in their automobiles. The remaining one fourth had belts but they were not being used at the time of the dental injury. Right-handed victims tended to be injured on the right side of the mouth and jaw and left-handed victims exhibited more injuries on the left side. As was anticipated, a high percentage (23 percent) of the residents of a hospital for the mentally retarded exhibited dental injuries.