Abstract
BACKGROUND: Dental trauma is a major public health issue, with the prevalence of traumatic dental injuries varying by country, geographic location, and age group. The study aimed to assess the pattern of root fractures in adult patients with traumatic dental injuries. Do traumatic dental injuries influence the pattern of root fractures? METHODOLOGY: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of patients presenting with dental traumatic injuries. Data was collected via an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The data collated were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 26.0. The data was subjected to analysis using descriptive statistics. The chi-square test was used to determine associations between categorical variables with a p-value set at 0.05. RESULTS: Eighty patients with radiographically confirmed root fractures of the anterior teeth were recruited to undertake this study. The participants were aged between 23 years and 69 years. The most prevalent presenting complaint was pain (53.8%). The main etiological factor of the traumatic incident was interpersonal violence (42.4%). The arch most involved was the maxillary arch (75.0%) with the central incisor being the most affected teeth (75.0%). The fracture of the apical third was the most recorded (67.5%). There was a statistically significant association between the gender of the patient and the location of the root fracture with 90.0% of males presenting with apical root fracture and 40.0% of females presenting with coronal third root fracture. CONCLUSION: The study concluded that traumatic dental injuries are common and different patterns of fractures were reported. Apical third fracture was reported as the most common pattern of root fracture in this study to be the most common in terms of pattern. The clinical relevance is to improve the high index of suspicion of apical root fracture in traumatic dental injuries.