Are behaviour risk factors for traumatic dental injuries in childhood different between males and females?

AIM: Examination of the risk factors for childhood traumatic dental injuries for male and female patients have been elusive. The present study aimed to examine whether males and females are differentially vulnerable to Traumatic Dental Injuries in relation to emotion regulation, attention deficiency hyperactive disorder symptomatology and behaviour problems.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

An institutional ethical review board approved the case-control study carried out at the Gazi University, Faculty of Dentistry, Turkey. A total of 80 patients with traumatic dental injuries and 80 patients with other dental problems participated in the study. Patients' parents filled in two scales: Conners' Rating Scales-Revised Attention Deficiency Hyperactive Disorder-Index, Oppositional Behavior, Hyperactivity, Anxious-Shy, Social Problems, Inattentive and Hyperactive-Impulsive subscales; and Emotion Regulation Checklist, with two subscales of Emotional Lability and Emotion Regulation. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed separately for male and female patients.

RESULTS

Oppositional behaviour, hyperactivity and social problems were found to be risk factors for male patients. Being anxious/shy was the protective factor for both males and females. Classification accuracy for males and females were calculated to be 79.2% and 85.2% respectively.

CONCLUSION

Several risk factors for childhood traumatic dental injuries were found to differ for male and female patients.