Do Our Children Play Safe?
Naveen Kumar Ramagoni / Y. Rajmohan Shetty / Amitha M. Hegde

Sports participation is a frequent cause of injury in general to children and adolescents. 719 athletically active school children belonging to the age group of 11-14 years were selected from the four urban localities in south India (i.e,Bangalore Chennai,Cochin & Hyderabad). Data was collected by a well structured questionnaire. The results revealed that the south Indian urban school children had inadequate levels of awareness regarding orofacial injuries and their emergency care. The knowledge regarding protective devices was found to be minimal. Majority of the children were aware of mouthguards but their usage was nil.
Key words:sports participation, emergency care, preventive measures , mouthguards