For those of us who have experienced tooth pain, it can at times be unbearable. It can affect our daily functioning and productivity. Can you imagine suffering through tooth pain while at the same time competing in the Olympics? With the type of focus that such competition requires, it is no wonder that a number of athletes from the 2012 Olympic Games said that their oral health was having a negative impact on their performance. Read on to learn more, and why it is that an oral health assessment should be a regular part of athletes medical care (and everyone’s care for that matter). Thanks for visiting us at Advanced Endodontics of Lakewood, OH, serving the greater Cleveland area.
Many of the elite sportsmen and women who competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games had poor levels of oral health similar to those experienced by the most disadvantaged populations. 18 per cent of athletes surveyed said their oral health was having a negative impact on their performance.
The research, which was led by Professor Ian Needleman at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The researchers recruited 302 athletes to take part in the study at the Dental Clinic in the London 2012 athletes’ village. The athletes represented 25 different sports, with 95 (34.9 per cent) competing in track and field, 38 (14 per cent) boxing and 31 (11.4 per cent) playing hockey. The athletes were given a systematic oral health check-up before being asked to give a personal assessment of the impact of oral health on their quality of life and athletic training/performance.
Overall, the research team found high levels of poor oral health with 55 per cent of athletes suffering from dental caries (tooth decay), of which 41 per cent was into the dentine (and therefore irreversible). More than three quarters of the participants had gingivitis (early stage gum disease) with 15 per cent showing signs of periodontitis, an irreversible gum infection in the soft tissue around the teeth.
42 per cent of athletes taking part in the study said that they were, “bothered by oral health” issues, with 28 per cent saying that it affected their quality of life. Almost one in five (18 per cent) athletes said that they believed poor oral health was negatively affecting their training or performance levels.
Nearly half of participants (46.5 per cent) had not attended for a dental examination or hygiene care in the previous year, while 8.7 per cent said they had never been to the dentist.
Professor Ian Needleman, lead author of the paper at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, said: “Oral health is important for wellbeing and successful elite sporting performance. It is amazing that many professional athletes — people who dedicate a huge amount of time and energy to honing their physical abilities — do not have sufficient support for their oral health needs, even though this negatively impacts on their training and performance.
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