Dental Trauma Associated with Binge Drinking in Brazilian Adolescents - a Longitudinal Study

Background: Prevalence of dental trauma can be influenced by several factors, among them binge drinking among adolescents. Objetive: To investigate longitudinally the association of dental trauma with the binge drinking among schoolchildren in Diamantina, Brazil. Methods: This longitudinal study used two waves of data collected when adolescents were 12 and 14-years-old. At the baseline assessment in classroom survey was carried out with representative sample of 588 students. A follow-up survey was carried out with the same adolescents 2 years later. Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-C (AUDIT-C) was employed for evaluation of alcohol intake. The predictor variables included sociodemographic characteristics and binge drinking. Descriptive and bivariate analyzes were performed (p0.05). Poisson Regression Model, considering the number of traumatized teeth as response, was used to calculate prevalence ratios (PR) with 95% confidence intervals. Results: Prevalence of dental trauma in baseline was 29.4% and in follow-up had risen to 33.4%. Gender and socioeconomic status were not associated with the increase in the dental trauma. However, binge drinking and clinical factors was significantly associated with an increase the dental traumatic injuries. Adolescents who reported binge drinking were 1.3 times more likely (IC95%:1,03-1.76) to present dental trauma. The increase in the prevalence of dental trauma and binge drinking was expected, considering the increase in age among the participants. Conclusion: Our results provide new evidence about the binge drinking among risk factors to dental trauma. New and unexpected predisposing factors should be considered in traumatic dental injuries prevention measures in order to improve the effectiveness of their prevention. Keywords: Oral health, quality of life, social capital, social cohesion, adolescent, epidemiology