Barodontalgia and barotrauma in the human teeth: findings in navy divers, frogmen, and submariners of the Federal Republic of Germany.

From 2,580 submariners, divers, and frogmen, 13,618 individual findings were evaluated from a total of about 50,000 dental findings of the Nautical Medical Institute of the German Navy, Kiel, West Germany. Trend analysis and statistical significance tests showed that the teeth of navy divers and frogmen had deteriorated very much more within a period of 9 years after their first dental examination than those of submariners. This negative tendency was verified through additional direct comparison between 37 navy divers and 37 submariners whose dental states were observed during a period of 10 years. Here as well, navy divers had significantly worse teeth. The cause of this distinctive dental deterioration among navy divers is probably due to the additional barometric stress they were subjected to for many years during their diving career. Delayed damages as a result of barotrauma may be assumed, a logical suspicion which should be verified by further scientific research.