Dental and General Trauma in Team Handball

Abstract

Handball has developed into a much faster and high-impact sport over the past few years because of rule changes. Fast sports with close body contact are especially prone to orofacial trauma. Handball belongs to a category of sports with medium risk for dental trauma. Even so, there is only little literature on this subject. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and the type of injuries, especially the occurrence of orofacial trauma, habits of wearing mouthguards, as well as degree of familiarity with the tooth rescue box. For this purpose, 77.1% (n=542/703) of all top athletes and coaches from the two highest Swiss leagues (National League A and National League B), namely 507 professional players and 35 coaches, were personally interviewed using a standardized questionnaire. 19.7% (n=100/507) of the players experienced dental trauma in their handball careers, with 40.8% (n=51/125) crown fractures being the most frequent by far. In spite of the relatively high risk of lip or dental trauma, only 5.7% (n=29/507) of the players wear mouthguards. The results of this study show that dental trauma is common among Swiss handball players. In spite of the high risk of dental trauma, the mouthguard as prevention is not adequately known, and correct procedure following dental trauma is rarely known at all.