Introduction
Dental injuries are very common and up to 30% of children injure their primary teeth. These injuries occur most often during the toddler years when children are active but unsteady on their feet. These injuries become common again in the mid-elementary school years (ages 8 to 10) as children join sports teams and become more independently active outdoors (eg, bicycles, playgrounds, trampolines). In adolescence, motor-vehicle accidents and assault become increasingly important in the epidemiology of dental injury. Overall, tooth injury is more common in males (greater
than a 2:1 ratio), and almost half of all children will incur some type of tooth damage by the time they reach adolescence.
