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. 2025 Nov;35(6):1071-1077.
doi: 10.1111/ipd.13322. Epub 2025 May 22.

Relationship Between Smartphone Use and Traumatic Tooth Fractures in Korean Adolescents

Yong Kwon Chae  1   2 , Sungwon Ryu  1 , Hyo-Seol Lee  1   2 , Sung Chul Choi  1   2 , Ok Hyung Nam  1   2
Affiliations

Relationship Between Smartphone Use and Traumatic Tooth Fractures in Korean Adolescents

Yong Kwon Chae et al. Int J Paediatr Dent. 2025 Nov.

Abstract

Background: With the increasing rate of smartphone use among adolescents, smartphone addiction has become a social issue, causing reduced attention. This may make adolescents more susceptible to traumatic dental injuries (TDIs).

Aim: To assess the association between smartphone use and TDIs among Korean adolescents.

Design: This study used open-source data from the 2023 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This study included responses from 52 875 Korean adolescents. Information on demographics, weekly smartphone use, weekly exercise days, and tooth fracture experiences in the past year was collected and analyzed.

Results: The mean smartphone use per week was 2146.91 ± 1276.60 min in all participants, and the frequency of tooth fractures was 9.3% in extremely low users, 10.1% in low users, 11.1% in excessive users, and 13.6% in extremely excessive users. Logistic regression analysis revealed that higher smartphone usage time correlated with a greater risk of tooth fracture by increasing odd ratios for low, excessive, and extremely excessive users compared to excessively low users.

Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, increased smartphone use was associated with higher rates of tooth fracture in Korean adolescents. This finding suggests the potential role of smartphone use in contributing to TDIs.

Keywords: adolescent; crown fracture; smartphone; traumatic dental injury.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Comparison between the group with tooth fractures and the group without tooth fractures. (A) Bar graphs of hard‐exercise days per week. (B) Violin plots of mean smartphone usage time per week. Horizontal lines in the plots represent median and the quantiles. The thickness of the colored shape presents the frequency of the corresponding value on the y‐axis. Numerical values in the figure present mean values. *p < 0.05 from Mann–Whitney U test.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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