Assessment of the association between overweight/obesity and traumatic dental injury among Brazilian schoolchildren.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between overweight/obesity and the occurrence of traumatic dental injury among schoolchildren aged 7 to 14 years. A cross-sectional study was carried out involving 590 students at public schools in the city of Campina Grande, Brazil. The classification proposed by O'Brien (1994) was used for the diagnosis of traumatic dental injury. Overweight/obesity was determined based on the body mass index. Clinical examinations were performed by two examiners who had undergone a calibration exercise (Kappa statistics of 0.87 and 0.90 for intra-examiner and inter-examiner, respectively). Data analysis involved the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test with a 5% level of significance. Traumatic dental injury was less prevalent among the schoolchildren with overweight/obesity than those without this condition (8.7% and 13.3%, respectively). When the sample was stratified by gender and age, traumatic dental injury was also more prevalent among schoolchildren without overweight/obesity. When the sample was stratified based on ethnicity, prevalence rates were similar between those with and without overweight/obesity. In the overall sample, no significant association was found between overweight/obesity and traumatic dental injury (p = 0.253). Overweight/obesity among schoolchildren aged 7 to 14 years was not associated with traumatic dental injury in this study. The analysis of physical activity may be important to gain a better understanding of this finding.