Zachary  Mills,Aaron M. Valasek,Adriana Modesto,Alexandre R. Vieira,Deborah  Studen-Pavlovich,Kristen Pelczar,Victoria Chang,
Adolescent High-Risk Behaviors and Orofacial Trauma
Oral Rehabilitation and Dentistry
2019
2733-2543
http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.ORD.2019.01.01
https://www.sciencerepository.org/adolescent-high-risk-behaviors-and-orofacial-trauma_ORD-2019-1-101 
Abstract: Aim: The objective of the study was to investigate if there was a relationship between high risk behaviors
among adolescents and orofacial trauma.
Material and Methods: The study used a cross-sectional retrospective design with data collected from
electronic health records of over 4,000 patients treated in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the
University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine from May 2009 through September 2013. This study
was approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board. Risk factors for trauma were
obtained from each patient’s medical and social history and included tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use,
tattoos, piercings, and mouthguard use during sports. Outcome measures used were history of broken bones
or orofacial trauma. The odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of each risk factor in increasing
risk for trauma outcomes were calculated. Chi-square tests were also performed with an alpha of 0.05.
Results and Conclusions: A total of 2,609 patients were included in this study. Males (N=1,340) had
statistically more often orofacial trauma than females, and were statistically more often exposed to all risk
factors (tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use, tattoos, and physical altercations) than females with the
exception of using piercings in body parts other than the ears and not wearing mouthguard for sports.
Wearing mouthguard for sports decreased in 50% the risk of orofacial trauma (OR=0.53; 95% CI 0.42-0.68;
p=0.00000001). Tobacco use and physical altercations increased the chance of broken bone, fractured tooth,
and orofacial trauma in 2-fold (smoking, OR=1.85-2.28, 95% CI 1.3-2.96; physical altercations, OR=1.9-
2.34; p=0.0005). Drinking and using illicit drugs increased the risk of broken bone (OR=1.9, 95% CI 1.37-
2.64; p=0.0001). Use of mouthguards for sports dramatically reduced the risk of orofacial trauma. Tobacco,
alcohol and illicit drug use, and getting into physical altercations increased the risk of orofacial trauma.
Keywords:  Adolescents, dental trauma, smoking, alcohol drinking, mouth guard