Data sources: Brazilian Bibliography of Dentistry (BBO), Scientific Electronic Library online (SciELO), Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS), The Cochrane Library, ISI Web of Knowledge, International Database for Medical Literature (MEDLINE) and PubMed Central. The database of the Brazilian Coordination of Higher Education Personnel Improvement (CAPES) was searched as well as reference lists from included articles.
Study selection: Articles providing information on the correlation between traumatic injuries in permanent teeth and socioeconomic indicators were included.
Data extraction and synthesis: Data were extracted by two reviewers and disagreements resolved through discussion and a qualitative synthesis conducted.
Results: Nine studies were included (1 cohort, 8 cross-sectional). Seven of the surveys were carried out in Brazil and two in Thailand. The age of children was 9-14 years. Statistically significant associations between permanent tooth injuries and high economic status were found in four studies.
Conclusions: There were few studies correlating traumatic injuries in permanent teeth and socioeconomic indicators and the majority found no such association. It is suggested that the association between traumatic dental injuries and socioeconomic factors may be related to the indicators used, considering differences in their individual components. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of the methodologies hinders the comparison of the studies.