Evaluation of the Oral Health Conditions of Volleyball Athletes

Abstract

Introduction Dental care can improve athletes’ performance, promoting oral health and preventing changes that could disrupt their sports routine. Objective To evaluate the dental conditions, habits, and oral health care of volleyball athletes, and their knowledge of the importance of oral health in sports performance. Methods Sixty-four male athletes participated in the study: 40 from the basic categories (16 ± 3 years) and 24 professionals (25 ± 5 years). For the assessment of oral conditions, changes in the temporomandibular joint, history of facial and dental trauma, and the presence of malocclusions and orthodontic treatment were verified. Hygiene was measured by the visible plaque index. To determine the athletes’ oral hygiene, they were asked how many times per day they brushed their teeth, flossed their teeth, or used oral mouthwash. Finally, we evaluated the athletes’ opinions concerning the importance of oral health and sports performance. Data analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney and Fisher’s Exact tests, with a significance level of 5%. Results For most of the parameters evaluated, similar results were found between professional and baseline athletes (p> 0.05). However, for the parameters “flossing” (p = 0.0027) and “facial/dental trauma” (p = 0.0444), significant differences were observed (p <0.05) between the categories of athletes. Conclusion We conclude that professional athletes are more prone to facial/dental trauma, and that the presence of a dental surgeon to assist the team improves athletes’ overall oral health. Level of evidence II; Retrospective study.

Oral health problems in high-performance athletes at 2019 Pan American Games in Lima: a descriptive study

“…In this respect, this contribution is added to the list of studies conducted in Latin America. 4 , 5 , 14 – 19 Furthermore, this study was based on the official data of the sports event, and it had as a reference source the monitoring system of the Olympic Committee (SVLE-IOC) that provides standardized information for sports events and has been widely used in previous studies. Despite the information system was conceived by using a medical-clinical perspective, dental variables in the data delivered at the JPL-19 were not considered because few data about oral health were available.…”

Differences in Oral Health Status in Elite Athletes According to Sport Modalities

“…The oral health status was evaluated using the decayed, missing, and filled teeth index (DMFT) to evaluate the presence of caries, absent, and/or filled teeth and the restoration index (IR) obtained by dividing the number of filled teeth by the DMFT index × 100 [32]. The prevalence of malocclusions was also determined following the angle guidelines [33] due to the potential influence of dental occlusion disturbance on postural stability and competitive athlete performance, as already reported in the context of gun shooting, golfing, and running [24,25,34,35]. In order to assess the impact that oral needs have on athletes, the oral health impact profile (OHIP) questionnaire was used in its abbreviated and Spanish version (OHIP-14sp) [36].…”

“…In this context, recent studies investigated the performance of golf professionals while using stabilizing splints: Kwon et al (2010) and Pae et al (2013) observed significant improvements in driving distance and club head speed when the oral appliances were being used [22,23]. Professional soccer and volleyball teams reported significant oral health problems associated with reduced performance [24][25][26]. Moreover, previous studies reported differences in oral status between athletes and the control group [24,27,28].…”

Oral Health Conditions and Self-Reported Presence of Pain in Rowers: An Epidemiology Study

“…In the evaluation of the data obtained in this research, we can conclude that the rowers who participated in this study presented better oral health than the average found in similar studies, among participants of other types of sport. 10,11 The high number of rowers with a dental history (65.8%) suggests that these athletes were given guidance in the past and that they paid close attention to their oral health. However, the stressful pace of training they are submitted to, the possibility of developing parafunction as bruxism (in the case of 33.3%), the high incidence of reported oral breathing (46.7%) and dietary habits and the use of isotonic drinks and supplements (48.3%) require accurate and specific control of these athletes.…”