When Robyn Hilles, a sophomore German major, celebrated Halloween her freshman year, she did what many college students do at parties: socialized, drank too much and stayed out late.
But she also lost part of her front tooth.
“I was raging sloppy when some nearby guy was in the midst of telling a story,” she said. “While tipping my bottle back to take a drink, he flailed his arms wildly, hitting my bottle.”
The next day Hilles had to go to the dentist and have her tooth evened.
“I didn’t realize how much of a chunk was gone until the next morning,” she said. “I told my parents it was a bike accident, and now they make fun of me because they think I’m so accident prone.”
Hilles is just one University student who has suffered an injury while under the influence of alcohol. According to the 2000 University Health Center Survey compiled by the Oregon Survey Research Laboratory, more than 7 percent of surveyed University males and more than 3 percent of females had physically injured themselves while drinking too much. Nearly 3 percent of surveyed males also admitted to injuring someone else while under the influence of alcohol.
Dr. Gary Young, medical director of the emergency department at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, said intoxicated University students are no strangers to the emergency room. He said although the medical staff does not categorize its patients, about one in every 10 is a student.
“Every weekend night we get more than one University student who’s had too much to drink,” he said. “Friday night we might have a patient, Saturday night — it’s routine.”
Young said the most common types of drunken injuries include cuts, head injuries, sprained limbs and fight wounds.
“People are much more likely to get injuries of any kind when they’re drinking,” he said. “It’s an epidemic problem with alcohol.”
Young said that while he treats both men and women, men need treatment more frequently.
“Males are more often in a situation where they aren’t in control of themselves,” he said. “They think they’re invincible.”

Young said one of the most severe injuries he ever treated was a man who had been in a drunken fight at a party that ended in a riot. He said the student’s neck was slashed with a broken bottle.
“The wound went down to his jugular vein,” he said. “He could have been killed.”
Dr. Paula Ciesielski, staff physician at the University Health Center, said she has treated students who have punched holes in walls and sprained their ankles. While she said some of these injuries were probably the result of too much alcohol, she said she does not ask her patients outright if they were drinking, so as not to offend those who do not drink.
However, she said students who drink are more likely to hurt themselves because their judgment is impaired.
“Sometimes students drink until they blackout, so they aren’t sure what happens to them,” she said. “Most people have very good common sense, but when alcohol is involved they lose their inhibitions.”
She said one reason students drink too much is because they model the behavior of their peers.
“If everyone’s sitting around playing a drinking game, then everyone’s going to drink,” she said.
Ciesielski said one way students can restrain out-of-control drinking habits is by looking out for their friends. She said people are more likely restrain their drinking if they are told to slow down by a friend.
But Ciesielski added she has hope that many students will learn to control their own drinking habits with time.
“I think the majority of people who get drunk once or twice and experience negative consequences probably won’t continue to binge drink,” she said.
But Hilles disagrees.
“I haven’t changed a thing,” she said. “I’ll just use recyclable plastic next time.”