A profile of facial bone fractures in an Oral and Maxillofacial Unit in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

Objective: Investigate the patterns of facial fractures presenting to an oral and maxillofacial service at a teaching hospital in Trinidad. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to obtain information on traumatic maxillofacial and mandibular fractures from the Oral and Maxillofacial Unit at the Eric Williams Medical Complex, Trinidad. Data was collected from February 2019 to February 2020 from 174 patients. For each patient the month of presenting injury, age, sex, ethnicity, mechanism of injury and fracture type was recorded. Results: In the (174) patients that reported fractures, 72% were male and 28% were female patients with a mean age of 34.9 years and mainly from the ethnicity of Afro-Caribbean (63.2%) followed by East Indian (30.5%). Two hundred and thirty-one (231) fractures were reported in this study with the highest number of fractures occurring in the 20-29 years age group (22%) and the most common fracture type was orbital floor fractures (31.6%). The predominant cause of traumatic fracture was physical assault (37.9%) followed by accidental injury (25.9%). Conclusion: The main cause of traumatic maxillofacial injury was physical assault and generally in young adult males. Orbital floor fractures comprised the most common fracture type in this study.