Children in general are at greater risk because of their high activity levels. Children that have risk-prone behaviors are at even greater risk.

Over 2.5 million child abuse and neglect cases are reported every year, and thirty-five out of every hundred cases are physical abuse cases. Bone fractures are sometimes part of the physical abuse of children; knowing the symptoms of bone fractures in physical abuse and recognizing the actual risks in physical abuse will help forward the prevention of future abuse and injuries. Astoundingly, these abuse fractures, if not dealt with correctly, have a potential to lead to the death of the child.

Fracture patterns in abuse fractures that are very common with abuse are fractures in the growing part of a long bone (between the shaft and the separated part of the bone), fractures of the humeral shaft (long bone between the shoulder and elbow), ribs, scapula, outer end of the clavicle, and vertebra. Multiple fractures of varying age, bilateral fractures, and complex skull fractures are also linked to abuse. Fractures of varying ages occur in about thirteen percent of all cases.

The healing time for a routine mandible fractures is 4–6 weeks whether MMF or rigid internal fixation (RIF) is used. For comparable fractures, patients who received MMF will lose more weight and take longer to regain mouth opening, whereas, those who receive RIF have higher infection rates.

The most common long-term complications are loss of sensation in the mandibular nerve, malocclusion and loss of teeth in the line of fracture. The more complicated the fracture (infection, comminution, displacement) the higher the risk of fracture.

Condylar fractures have higher rates of malocclusion which in turn are dependent on the degree of displacement and/or dislocation. When the fracture is intracapsular there is a higher rate of late-term osteoarthritis and the potential for ankylosis although the later is a rare complication as long as mobilization is early. Pediatric condylar fractures have higher rates of ankylosis and the potential for growth disturbance.

Rarely, mandibular fracture can lead to Frey's syndrome.

Mandible fracture causes vary by the time period and the region studied. In North America, blunt force trauma (a punch) is the leading cause of mandible fracture whereas in India, motor vehicle collisions are now a leading cause. On battle grounds, it is more likely to be high velocity injuries (bullets and shrapnel). Prior to the routine use of seat belts, airbags and modern safety measures, motor vehicle collisions were a leading cause of facial trauma. The relationship to blunt force trauma explains why 80% of all mandible fractures occur in males. Mandibular fracture is a rare complication of third molar removal, and may occur during the procedure or afterwards. With respect to trauma patients, roughly 10% have some sort of facial fracture, the majority of which come from motor vehicle collisions. When the person is unrestrained in a car, the risk of fracture rises 50% and when an unhelmeted motorcyclist the risk rises 4-fold.

Vertical root fractures are a type of fracture of a tooth. They can be characterized by an incomplete or complete fracture line that extends through the long axis of the root toward the apex. Vertical root fractures represent between 2 and 5 percent of crown/root fractures. The greatest incidence occurs in endodontically treated teeth, and in patients older than 40 years of age.

The occurrence of a complete vertical root fracture is often catastrophic for the individual tooth as tooth extraction is usually the only reasonable treatment.

Vertical root fracture is more likely where teeth have undergone extensive prior treatment. It is thought that excessive removal of dentine during procedures such as root canal treatment weakens the tooth. For this reason excessive canal shaping should be avoided. Fracturing may be caused by excessive forces placed on the tooth, such as during compaction of gutta-percha during the obturation phase of endodontics. Trauma can also cause crack formation.

Removable splints result in better outcomes than casting in children with torus fractures of the distal radius.

The greenstick fracture pattern occurs as a result of bending forces. Activities with a high risk of falling are risk factors. Non-accidental injury more commonly causes spiral (twisting) fractures but a blow on the forearm or shin could cause a green stick fracture. The fracture usually occurs in children and teens because their bones are flexible, unlike adults whose more brittle bones usually break.

Pathologic fracture of the mandible is a possible complication of OM where the bone has been weakened significantly.

Bone stability after a fracture occurs between 3 and 4 weeks. Some experts suggest not wearing glasses or blowing the nose during this time as it can affect the bone alignment. Full bone fusion occurs between 4 and 8 weeks. General activity is fine after 1–2 weeks, but contact sports are not advisable for at least 2–3 months, depending on the extent of injury. It is recommended that when participating in sports a face guard should be worn for at least 6 weeks post-injury.

Symptoms include: Short duration pain on biting, sensitivity to temperature change. Fracture lines may be visibly evident. Transillumination may reveal unseen fractures. Radiographic changes such as radiolucencies in the region of the fracture may be seen.

OM of the jaws usually occurs in adult males. The mandible is affected more commonly than the maxilla. The most common cause of OM of the jaws is the spread of adjacent odontogenic infection. The second most common cause is following a fracture, usually of the mandible.

Complications are likely to result in cases of excess blood loss or punctures to certain organs, possibly leading to shock. Swelling and bruising may result, more so in high-impact injuries. Pain in the affected areas may differ where severity of impact increases its likelihood and may radiate if symptoms are aggravated when one moves around.

In children, whose bones are still developing, there are risks of either a growth plate injury or a greenstick fracture.

- A greenstick fracture occurs due to mechanical failure on the tension side. That is, since the bone is not so brittle as it would be in an adult, it does not completely fracture, but rather exhibits bowing without complete disruption of the bone's cortex in the surface opposite the applied force.

- Growth plate injuries, as in Salter-Harris fractures, require careful treatment and accurate reduction to make sure that the bone continues to grow normally.

- Plastic deformation of the bone, in which the bone permanently bends, but does not break, also is possible in children. These injuries may require an osteotomy (bone cut) to realign the bone if it is fixed and cannot be realigned by closed methods.

- Certain fractures mainly occur in children, including fracture of the clavicle and supracondylar fracture of the humerus.

A compound elevated skull fracture is a rare type of skull fracture where the fractured bone is elevated above the intact outer table of the skull. This type of skull fracture is always compound in nature. It can be caused during an assault with a weapon where the initial blow penetrates the skull and the underlying meninges and, on withdrawal, the weapon lifts the fractured portion of the skull outward. It can also be caused the skull rotating while being struck in a case of blunt force trauma, the skull rotating while striking an inanimate object as in a fall, or it may occur during transfer of a patient after an initial compound head injury.

Several precautions may decrease the risk of getting a pelvic fracture. One study that examined the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation found that oral vitamin D supplements reduced the risk of hip and nonvertebral fractures in older people. Certain types of equipment may help prevent pelvic fractures for the groups which are most at risk.

A Le Fort fracture of the skull is a classic transfacial fracture of the midface, involving the maxillary bone and surrounding structures in either a horizontal, pyramidal or transverse direction. The hallmark of Lefort fractures is traumatic "pterygomaxillary separation", which signifies fractures between the pterygoid plates, horseshoe shaped bony protuberances which extend from the inferior margin of the maxilla, and the maxillary sinuses. Continuity of this structure is a keystone for stability of the midface, involvement of which impacts surgical management of trauma victims, as it requires fixation to a horizontal bar of the frontal bone. The pterygoid plates lie posterior to the upper dental row, or alveolar ridge, when viewing the face from an anterior view. The fractures are named after French surgeon René Le Fort (1869–1951), who discovered the fracture patterns by examining crush injuries in cadavers.

A fracture in conjunction with an overlying laceration that tears the epidermis and the meninges—or runs through the paranasal sinuses and the middle ear structures, putting the outside environment in contact with the cranial cavity—is a compound fracture.

Compound fractures may either be clean or contaminated. Intracranial air (pneumocephalus) may occur in compound skull fractures.

The most serious complication of compound skull fractures is infection. Increased risk factors for infection include visible contamination, meningeal tear, loose bone fragments and presenting for treatment more than eight hours after initial injury.

Some fractures may lead to serious complications including a condition known as compartment syndrome. If not treated, eventually, compartment syndrome may require amputation of the affected limb. Other complications may include non-union, where the fractured bone fails to heal or mal-union, where the fractured bone heals in a deformed manner.

Complications of fractures may be classified into three broad groups, depending upon their time of occurrence. These are as follows –

1. "Immediate" complications – occurs at the time of the fracture

2. "Early" complications – occurring in the initial few days after the fracture

3. "Late" complications – occurring a long time after the fracture

Nasal fractures are caused by physical trauma to the face. Common sources of nasal fractures include sports injuries, fighting, falls, and car accidents in the younger age groups, and falls from syncope or impaired balance in the elderly.

Colles fractures occur in all age groups, although certain patterns follow an age distribution.

- In the elderly, because of the weaker cortex, the fracture is more often extra-articular.

- Younger individuals tend to require a higher energy force to cause the fracture and tend to have more complex intra-articular fractures. In children with open epiphyses, an equivalent fracture is the "epiphyseal slip", as can be seen in other joints, such as a slipped capital femoral epiphysis in the hip. This is a Salter I or II fracture with the deforming forces directed through the weaker epiphyseal plate.

- More common in women because of post-menopausal osteoporosis.

Aetiology of CTS is multifactorial, the causative factors include:

- previous restorative procedures.

- occlusal factors

- developmental conditions/anatomical considerations.

- trauma

- others, e.g, aging dentition or presence of lingual tongue studs.

Most commonly involved teeth are mandibular molars followed by maxillary premolars, maxillary molars and maxillary premolars. in a recent audit, mandibular first molar thought to be most affected by CTS possibly due to the wedging effect of opposing pointy, protruding maxillary mesio-palatal cusp onto the mandibular molar central fissure.

Clavicle fractures occur at 30–64 cases per 100,000 a year and are responsible for 2.6–5.0% of all fractures. This type of fracture occurs more often in males. About half of all clavicle fractures occur in children under the age of seven and is the most common pediatric fracture. Clavicle fractures involve roughly 5% of all fractures seen in hospital emergency admissions. Clavicles are the most commonly broken bone in the human body.

The cause is usually a direct blow to the malar eminence of the cheek during assault. The paired zygomas each have two attachments to the cranium, and two attachments to the maxilla, making up the orbital floors and lateral walls. These complexes are referred to as the zygomaticomaxillary complex. The upper and transverse maxillary bone has the zygomaticomaxillary and zygomaticotemporal sutures, while the lateral and vertical maxillary bone has the zygomaticomaxillary and frontozygomatic sutures.

The formerly used 'tripod fracture' refers to these buttresses, but did not also incorporate the posterior relationship of the zygoma to the sphenoid bone at the zygomaticosphenoid suture.

There is an association of ZMC fractures with naso-orbito-ethmoidal fractures (NOE) on the same side as the injury. Concomitant NOE fractures predict a higher incidence of post operative deformity.

In circumstances where other pathologies are excluded (for example, cancer), a pathologic fracture is diagnostic of osteoporosis irrespective of bone mineral density.

Jefferson fracture is often caused by an impact or load on the back of the head, and are frequently associated with diving into shallow water, impact against the roof of a vehicle and falls, and in children may occur due to falls from playground equipment. Less frequently, strong rotation of the head may also result in Jefferson fractures.

Jefferson fractures are extremely rare in children, but recovery is usually complete without surgery.