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The topic of sports dentistry has become an area of growing interest in the United States for both dentists and athletes who seek protection from orofacial injuries during recreational and competitive activities. Research indicates that many sports that do not require mouthguards should encourage the use of orofacial protectors for male and female participants. Sports such basketball, soccer, wrestling or any sport where the potential for dental trauma can occur, should consider the use mouthguards for the protection of the competitors. The American Dental Association described team dentists having three primary responsibilities that include performing preseason oral examinations, fabricating mouthguards for team members, and providing emergency dental care when necessary. Whether an athlete is grammar or high school age, collegiate, or professional, dental care must be available before, during, and after the competitive season. In addition to orofacial protection, sports dentistry is concerned with emergency treatment at the site of athletic competition and establishing mouthguard programs for athletes of all ages, gender, and sports. The Academy for Sports Dentistry, a national organization promoting mouthguard usage, is concerned with mouthguard testing and standards, legal considerations for team dentists, research, encouraging more dental professionals to become involved in mouthguard programs. More statistical research is needed in the area of sports dentistry in the United States. A national reporting system for sports related orofacial injuries would provide more accurate data in determining which sports should require mouthguard protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amy E. Orofacial injuries in Central American and Caribbean sports games: a 20 year experience. Dent Traumatol 2005; 21: 127–130.© Blackwell Munksgaard, 2005.Dental services in sports competitions in the Games sponsored by the International Olympic Committee are mandatory. In every Central American, Pan American and Olympic Summer Games, as well as Winter Games, the Organizing Committee has to take all the necessary measures to assure dental services to all competitors. In all Olympic villages, as part of the medical services, a dental clinic is set up to treat any dental emergency that may arise during the Games. Almost every participating country in the Games has its own medical team and some may include a dentist. The major responsibilities of the team dentist as a member of the national sports delegation include: (i) education of the sports delegation about different oral and dental diseases and the illustration of possible problems that athletes or other personnel may encounter during the Games, (ii) adequate training and management of orofacial trauma during the competition, (iii) knowledge about the rules and regulations of the specific sport that the dentist is working, (iv) understanding of the anti-doping control regulations and procedures, (v) necessary skills to fabricate a custom-made and properly fitted mouthguard to all participants in contact or collision sports of the delegation. This study illustrates the dental services and occurrence of orofacial injury at the Central American and Caribbean Sports Games of the Puerto Rican Delegation for the past 20 years. A total of 2107 participants made up the six different delegations at these Games. Of these 279 or 13.2% were seen for different dental conditions. The incidence of acute or emergency orofacial conditions was 18 cases or 6% of the total participants. The most frequent injury was lip contusion with four cases and the sport that experienced more injuries was basketball with three cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to compare head impact data acquired with an impact monitoring mouthguard (IMM) to the video-observed behavior of athletes' post-collision relative to their pre-collision behaviors. A total of n = 83 college and high school American football players wore the IMM and were video-recorded over 260 athlete-exposures. Ex-athletes and clinicians reviewed the video in a two-step process and categorized abnormal post-collision behaviors according to previously published Obvious Performance Decrement (OPD) definitions. Engineers qualitatively reviewed datasets to check head impact and non-head impact signal frequency and magnitude. The ex-athlete reviewers identified 2305 head impacts and 16 potential OPD impacts, 13 of which were separately categorized as Likely-OPD impacts by the clinical reviewers. All 13 Likely-OPD impacts were in the top 1% of impacts measured by the IMM (ranges 40-100 g, 3.3-7.0 m/s and 35-118 J) and 12 of the 13 impacts (92%) were to the side or rear of the head. These findings require confirmation in a larger data set before proposing any type of OPD impact magnitude or direction threshold exists. However, OPD cases in this study compare favorably with previously published impact monitoring studies in high school and college American football players that looked for OPD signs, impact magnitude and direction. Our OPD findings also compare well with NFL reconstruction studies for ranges of concussion and sub-concussive impact magnitudes in side/rear collisions, as well as prior theory, analytical models and empirical research that suggest a directional sensitivity to brain injury exists for single high-energy impacts.