RELATION BETWEEN INCISAL OVERJET AND TRAUMATIC INJURY - A CASE-CONTROL STUDY

Most previous studies have shown the prevalence of traumatic dental in juries in anterior teeth to increase with increasing overjet. This stu dy identified 36 Singapore schoolchildren, age 7-18 years, from a clin ic population of 11,179, who had suffered dental trauma while playing contact or collision sports. A case control group of 36 children, matc hed for age, sex, race and sporting activities, but who had not suffer ed dental trauma, was selected from the same clinic population. Both g roups were examined and the nature of injuries received, together with overjet measured to the nearest 0.5 mm were determined. The mean over jet for the trauma group was 3.42+/-1.45 mm and for the injured group 3.42+/-1.33 mm. These means were not statistically different (p=1.00), neither did the distribution of overjet between the groups differ. Th ese data were not in accord with the majority of studies correlating i ncisal overjet and dental trauma, and they suggested that overjet was not a positive correlate with traumatic dental injury in Singapore sch oolchildren.