Knowledge and attitudes about sports-related dental injuries and mouthguard use in young athletes in four different contact sports-water polo, karate, taekwondo and handball.

Abstract

The increasing popularity of participating in sports activities among children and adolescents has increased the risk of sports-related orofacial and dental injuries. Therefore, it is important to establish efficient preventive strategies regarding sports-related dental trauma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of sports-related dental injuries in young athletes and to compare the frequency of such injuries between high-risk and medium-risk sports, along with assessing athletes' attitudes and habits regarding mouthguard use. A total of 229 young athletes from four different sports (water polo (n=59), karate (n=58), taekwondo (n=57) and handball (n=55)) participated in this study. A standardized questionnaire about the frequency of orofacial and dental injuries was used. Questions were also asked about athletes' habits related to mouthguard use. Mean age of the participants was 12.9±3.2years, and the average time of playing experience was 4.8±3.1years. Orofacial injury had been experienced by 58 athletes (25.3%), while 31 athletes (13.5%) suffered dental injury. Higher rate of dental injuries was observed in water polo (18.6%), karate (17.2%) and handball (21.8%) than in taekwondo (3.5%) (P=.035). Most participants were aware of mouthguards for dental trauma prevention and considered them efficient for preventing dental injuries during sports activities, but only 94 (41%) used them. There was a statistically significant difference in the use of mouthguards between taekwondo (73.7%) and karate (70.7%) players compared to handball (14.5%) and water polo players (5.1%) (P<.001). Handball and water polo had similarly high occurrence of dental trauma as karate, a high-risk martial art sport. Therefore, the classification of sports according to the risk of dental trauma should be reconsidered. It would be beneficial to make wearing a mouthguard mandatory in all high-risk sports, as well as in those with medium-risk for dental injuries.