On the problem of improving dental care for professional athletes

Aim. Assessment of organs and tissues of oral cavity of professional athletes who use protective mouth guards.

Methods. Dental examination of 340 professional athletes of Olympic reserve at the age of 18 to 32 years with a duration of sport experience of 9-13 years was performed. We investigated the effect of mouth guards on the condition of the marginal periodontium and microbial contamination. Changes in periodontal tissues were diagnosed by means of traditional methods of inspection, probing of the periodontal grooves, recesses, as well as determining tooth mobility. The control group included 20 athletes not using athletic mouth guards during training.

Results. High prevalence of caries (in average, in all examined athletes the rate of carious teeth reaches 32.90%) and fairly high prevalence of severe forms of periodontal diseases in those patients were revealed. Evaluation of the structure of the index of teeth with decay and fillings and removed teeth showed major defects in timely dental care organization for professional boxers: their ratio of filled teeth does not exceed 40.36% in average. A significant number of extracted teeth (more than 23%) indicates that the examined patients require dental orthopaedic care. 30 examined athletes wearing protective mouth guards had the strains of P. gingivalis, A. Actinomycetemcomitans and P. oralis revealed.

Conclusion. The study of dental status of professional athletes using protective mouth guards, showed high prevalence of inflammatory periodontal diseases and low level of hygienic state of oral cavity.