Abstract
Objectives : This study was to investigate the use of mouth-guards and maxillofacial injuries and to examined the relationship among variables in athletes group. Methods : The subjects were 459(86.5%), who were 18 years or older with mean age of 20.7 years. Data was collected using a self administrated questionnaire from May 25 to June 15, 2009. We surveyed maxillofacial injuries(temporo-mandibular disorders contained) and mouth-guards usage and confidence concerning mouth-guards in athletes. The data were analysed with chi-square analysis, fisher's exact test and logistic regression using the SPSS 15.0 windows. Results : Prevalence of body or maxillofacial injuries experiences was 54.5% for athletes and 47.1% for non-athletes groups(p>0.05). The other hand, the incidence temporo-mandibular disorders was 67.0% for athletes and 49.8% for non-athletes groups(p<0.05). The experience of the use of mouth-guards was 83.3% for athletes and 78.8% for non-athletes, there were not significant differences between athletes and non-athletes groups (p>0.05). Risk factors found to be significantly related to the occurrence of maxillofacial injury were: unused mouth-guards(OR=2.83), no rules for use of mouth-guards(OR=2.46). Conclusions : Based on the findings, maxillofacial injuries experience is highly associated with mouth-guards usage, not only athletes also general people should be educated on the use of mouth-guard in order to reduce the incidence of maxillofacial injuries.
