Oro-facial trauma in amateur secondary school footballers in Ibadan, Nigerian: a study of mouthguards.
To assess the awareness and frequency of use of mouth-guards for football among secondary school children in Ibadan, Nigeria, as well as the amount of oro-facial trauma previously associated with football game in these adolescents, a questionnaire - based cross-sectional study was conducted. Six hundred and thirty -one amateur footballers - 465 (73.7%) males and 166 (26.3%) females in the age range of 10 - 19 years (mean age, 15.01 +/- 2.86SD) completed the questionnaire giving a response rate of 90.1%. Majority (58.8%) of the subjects was within the 10-15 years age group. Awareness of mouth-guards was claimed by 69.7% of the respondents but significantly more of them who made the claim were not using the protective device for football games (p<0.05). More boys significantly claimed the usage of mouth-guards than girls (p<0.05). In all, 59.7% agreed that wearing mouth-guard was helpful in oro-facial injury prevention during sports with significantly more boys in agreement than girls (p<0.05). About 36% of the subjects sustained one form of oro-facial trauma or the other with significant sex difference (p<0.05). Secondary schools should serve as good starting points in the campaign for use of mouth-guards for contact sports before some go into professional sports.
Department of Preventive Dentistry, College of Medicine/University College Hospital, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
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Onyeaso
D000293:Adolescent; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005538:Football / Q000293:injuries*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009064:Mouth Protectors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D018677:Tooth Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control