The literature is scarce on the association between traumatic dental injuries (TDI) and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among adolescents and there is no study assessing this relationship using clinical criteria for the assessment of TDI in this age group. The aim of this study was to assess the association between TDI and OHRQoL among 15-19-year-old adolescents from Santa Maria, Brazil.
A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted including a representative sample of 1,197 15-19-year-old adolescents attending 31 public and private schools. The Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) was used to evaluate the OHRQoL and clinical examinations were performed to diagnose TDI based on the O’Brien classification. Demographic information, socioeconomic status and clinical characteristics (caries experience, malocclusion and gingivitis) were also collected as adjusting variables. Multilevel Poisson regression models were used to assess the association between TDI and OHRQoL. Rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated.
The overall prevalence of TDI was 17%, mild trauma was 12% and severe trauma was 5%. In the adjusted models, adolescents with TDI had poorer OHRQoL than those without TDI (RR=1.10; 95%CI=1.05-1.16). This negative effect was related to the psychological disability domain (RR=1.16; 95%CI=1.02-1.32), to the social disability domain (RR=1.34; 95%CI=1.13-1.59) and to the handicap domain (RR=1.35; 95%CI=1.10-1.66).
Despite its low severity, TDI negatively affected the OHRQoL of 15-19-year-old adolescents from Santa Maria, Brazil.

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