Prevalence and distribution of traumatic injuries to the permanent teeth of Dominican children from private schools.

The purpose of this study was to describe by age and sex, the prevalence, etiology, distribution and type of injury to permanent incisors of children from private schools of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, located in the Caribbean archipelago. The sample consisted of 1633 children, 5-14 yr enrolled in several private schools of Santo Domingo. The prevalence of injury was 10.0% (5.0% in boys and 5.1% in girls). The largest number of injuries was found in the 5- and 6-yr-old children, followed by the 7- and 8-yr-olds. There was no significant difference in the number of teeth injured in both sexes (0.1%). The most common type of injury in both sexes was concussion (42.7%) with no significant difference between sexes (5.7%). The most common cause of injury in both sexes was falling against an object (77.8% in boys and 78.3% in girls). Most boys injured their teeth playing baseball (86.4%) and most girls playing on roller skates (72.3%). More girls suffered injuries (not significantly) with the ratio of boys to girls being 0.91 to 1.