Traumatic Dental Injuries among 8-12 Year Old Sudanese Children in Khartoum State

Background: Traumatic dental injuries are common in children, and they are often associated with facial fractures in road traffic accidents. Boys sustain dental trauma almost twice as much as girls. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of traumatic dental injury among 8-12 years old Sudanese children. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional school based study for 813 school children (395 boys and 418 girls) 8-12 years old were selected from private and public primary schools for assessment of traumatic dental injuries according to Ellis classification and the causes of trauma were studied. Data was collected by visual examination and no radiographs were taken. Chi-square test was used to test association between the different variables. P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: High prevalence (27.9%) of traumatic dental injuries was observed in this study. Boys and girls were more or less equally affected (48.6%, 51.4%) respectively. Falling was the most common cause (14.1%) while the least common one was road traffic accidents (0.6%). Tooth fracture was the most frequent type of tooth injury reported in the current study (13.3%). Conclusion: The prevalence, type and most common causal factors of traumatic injuries to the maxillary anterior teeth in Sudanese schoolchildren 8-12years old was approximately the same as that found in other countries.