A medical study has revealed that violent quarrels were second to car accidents as a major cause of maxillofacial injuries in Saudi Arabia. The study, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, which was conducted by Dr. Rahaf Al-Habab, an oral and maxillofacial consultant at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, said that quarrels were responsible for 17.3 percent of maxillofacial injuries in the Kingdom, while car accidents were responsible for 60 percent of facial traumas. Falls from high places accounted for 16.7 percent, sport-related accidents, 2.3 percent, and domestic accidents, 2.3 percent. The study also revealed that 59.5 percent of fractures in such cases were to the lower jaw bone, followed by facial bones of the cheek, the eye socket, the nasal bone, the frontal bone, and the upper jaw bones. The study, which was presented by Dr. Al-Habab to the 23rd International Conference on Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Hong Kong, showed that 86.4 percent of the victims of facial and maxillofacial fractures were males, and only 13.6% were females, most of them in the age group of 20 to 30. The study emphasized the importance of raising awareness among citizens on the need to abide by traffic rules and regulations.
