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Participation in sports activities is a source of dental injury. Despite recommendations for the use of mouthguards, athletes underutilize them. The aim of this study was to provide estimates of dental injuries, the mechanism of injuries and the utilization of mouthguards in high school sports.This study was a secondary analysis of an existing dataset of a convenience sample of the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study. Data of athletic exposures, dental injuries, mouthguard usage, and mechanism of injury from the 2005/2006 to the 2019/2020 academic years were analyzed.During the study period, there were 459 dental injuries in 49,987,927 athletic exposures resulting in a dental injury rate of 0.9 per 100,000 athletic exposures (AE). Slightly more than half of the traumatic dental injuries were sustained during competition (n = 256; 55.8%) and the rest (n = 200; 43.6%) were sustained during practice. The rate of dental injury in competition was 3.6 times higher than the rate in practice (RR: 3.6, 95% CI: 3.0-4.4). Dental injuries comprised 0.4% of the total 108,574 injuries sustained by athletes. Among girls' sports, field hockey had the highest rate (3.5 per 100,000 AE) and among boys' sports, basketball (2.4 per 100,000 AE) had the highest rate of dental injury. The most common mechanism of injury was contact with another player (276; 60.4%) followed by contact with apparatus (146; 31.9%). In the majority of dental injuries (308; 75.1%), the athlete was not wearing a mouthguard when the dental injury was sustained.Dental injuries were a small proportion of all injuries sustained by high school athletes. The majority of dental injuries were sustained when the athlete was not wearing a mouthguard.

BACKGROUND/AIM It is crucial that dentists who treat traumatic dental injuries rule out concomitant brain injuries. Despite anatomic proximity, controversy exists regarding association between facial trauma and head injury. The aim of this study was to examine the association between dento-alveolar trauma (DAT) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) using a national dataset of emergency department (ED) visits. MATERIAL AND METHODS Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) data, one of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) datasets, were analyzed. Encounters of patients age 0-18 years with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes associated with DAT and TBI in the 2010-2014 NEDS were identified. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and logistic regression models to investigate the association between DAT and TBI and factors associated with TBI in DAT-positive patients. RESULTS During the study period, 6 281 658 ED visits were associated with traumatic injuries. DAT was recorded in 93 408 (1.5%) and TBI was recorded in 996 334 (15.9%) of these traumatic injury visits. Within the group of DAT-positive encounters, 7035 (7.5%) had codes associated with TBI. Of trauma encounters where a DAT was not involved (6 188 250 encounters), 989 299 (16%) had an associated TBI code. Patients with DAT had 0.20 odds of having TBI (95% CI, 0.19-0.20, P

The traditional dental curriculum presents limited opportunities for students to evaluate and treat patients with acute dental trauma. In an effort to increase student experiences, faculty at a dental school initiated and taught an interdisciplinary trauma course from 2014 to 2016. This course was elective, offered in the final year of dental school, and combined student-led and faculty-led case-based discussions of management of traumatic dental injuries with hospital trauma call shadowing. Modifications of the course were made based on student feedback. Preliminary data from student surveys showed a favorable opinion of the course. Attendees were exposed to a higher number of acute traumatic injuries and they expressed greater confidence in their diagnosis and management abilities than their peers.

According to the 2014 American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Survey of Dental School Seniors, 45.3% of new graduates planned to enter private practice immediately after graduation; of those, while 65% planned to become an associate dentist in a private practice, 28.3% intended to enter a corporate group practice-the only category that saw an increase over the previous year. Current trends indicate that the number of new graduates choosing to enter some form of private practice without further education will continue to remain high, due in large part to the need to repay educational debt. In light of these trends, the question that must be asked is whether dental schools are optimally preparing students to make informed decisions regarding future employment options in the changing dental practice landscape. This article argues that dental schools should review their curricula to ensure graduates are being prepared for this changing environment and the increased business pressures associated with dental practice. Important considerations in preparing dental students to be successful in the process of selecting a practice model are identified.

With the support for curriculum change expressed by the American Dental Education Association’s Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education (ADEA CCI), the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Dentistry (LSUSD) initiated a course that vertically integrates the basic sciences and clinical sciences and promotes critical thinking. The resulting Dental Rounds course includes presentations by D3 and D4 students on interesting clinical cases, which the entire student body is required to attend. Following the third year of the program, a formal evaluation was conducted, in which surveys were disseminated to students, recent graduates, and faculty members to collect feedback on the efficacy of the course, its perceived value, and its success as an educational tool. Of the 242 students and graduates who were sent surveys, 181 responded, a 74 percent response rate. Of the eighty full-time faculty members, sixty-one responded, a 76 percent response rate. Most respondents reported that the objectives of the course were being achieved, but they identified case-related discussion as an area for strengthening critical thinking skills. As a result, modifications were planned to include formal participation of D1 and D2 students in the presentations, less frequent sessions to accommodate more complete cases, more emphasis on basic science, more structured mentoring, and a modified question format. Dental Rounds was a necessary integration step in dental education for LSUSD, and it is anticipated that the planned modifications will lead to strengthening of critical thinking skills in both students and faculty.