Maternal characteristics, home environment, and other factors associated with traumatic dental injuries in preschool children

Background/Aims: The importance of external factors such as maternal and home characteristics on traumatic dental injuries needs to be investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between maternal and home characteristics and dental trauma in preschool children. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study using a cluster random sample evaluated children between 3 and 4 years of age from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Mothers completed the Brazilian version of the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories (BDI and BAI). They answered questions about sociodemographics, maternal behaviors, and home characteristics. Dental trauma was assessed by the Children's Dental Health Survey criteria. Malocclusion and deleterious habits were also assessed. The multinomial logistic regression model was used to investigate the association of exploratory variables with different categories of dental trauma. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Results: A total of 163 pairs of children and mothers agreed to participate (78.4% response rate). The prevalence of dental trauma was 49.8%. Mother's work outside the home, overjet, and anterior crossbite were associated with the occurrence of enamel trauma, while having a younger mother, families having more siblings, and having a mother with university education were associated with increased odds of dentin/pulp trauma. Conclusion: Depression and anxiety in the mothers were not associated with dental trauma, while malocclusion characteristics were more relevant for less severe, enamel trauma. Socioeconomic and home environment characteristics played a role in more severe, dentin/pulp trauma.