Dentofacial trauma in selected contact sports among high school students in Nairobi City County

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Physical activities such as sports which are competitive at all levels are increasingly becoming popular worldwide. In light of this, Kenyan youth are participating more in competitive sports. Unfortunately the health benefits of sporting activities can be antagonised by injury risks to the dentofacial region which include injuries to the hard and soft tissues. Clinicians are therefore more likely to encounter sports - related injuries. STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the pattern of occurrence of sports-related dentofacial injuries among athletes participating in Rugby and Football in Nairobi City County, Kenya. STUDY AREA: The study was conducted in 17 secondary schools in Nairobi City County. The schools participated in Rugby Prescott and Damu Pevu tournament during the 2015 tournament and the Nairobi Football League 2015 season in Nairobi City County. STUDY DESIGN: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 510 students were sampled through stratified random sampling from 12 Rugby and 17 Football teams. The study population comprised of male high school students between the ages of 14 and 18 years. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess the prevalence of dentofacial injuries, the aetiology, severity and the type of injury. The questionnaire also evaluated the awareness, use and type of mouthguard. A clinical examination of the selected students was carried out and data entered into a modified World Health Organization Oral Health Assessment Form for Children (2013) to determine their dental trauma status. DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION: The data collected was coded, entered,

cleaned and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. Chi – square (χ2), Fishers exact test, odd’s ratio and Anova (F) were used. The confidence level was set at 95% (p≤0.05). RESULTS: Five hundred and ten students participated in this study. Two hundred and eighty one (55.1%) reported having experienced dentofacial injuries. Participants playing both sports had a statistically significant higher prevalence of dentofacial injuries (66.7%), as compared to Rugby (54.3%) and Football players (54.1%) (χ 2 = 7.40, df = 2, p = 0.02). Clinical examination revealed 39% of the participants had experienced dentofacial injuries. The most prevalent injury reported was soft tissue injury at 68.3%, tooth injuries at 19.5% and combination injury of hard and soft tissue at 8.1%. Bone fractures stood at 3.9% of the total dentofacial injuries. Three hundred and fifty (68.6%) athletes knew what a mouthguard was but a significantly lower number of 105 (20.6%) actually used mouthguards (χ 2 = 36.45 , df = 4, p = 0.00). Of all the respondents, 250 (49%) believed wearing a mouthguard would reduce the prevalence or occurrence of dentofacial injuries during sporting activity. The prevalence of dentofacial trauma was significantly lower in athletes who wore mouthguards. CONCLUSION: More than half of the study participants had experienced dentofacial injuries with soft tissue injuries being the most commonly reported. Although, the majority of the athletes knew what a mouthguard was, less than a fifth actually used them. Over half of the athletes were not sure that mouthguards could reduce the prevalence and/or severity of dentofacial injuries. Participants who used mouthguar demonstrated a significantly lower prevalence of dentofacial injuries in comparison to non-users. RECOMMENDATION: There is need to educate the athletes on the dentofacial injuries that they can sustain while participating in sports and on how to minimise the occurrence of the dentofacial injuries.