Oral Health Risks in Athletes

By Stephanie Anderson, BS, Paola Salazar, AS, Sana Saleem and Joan Pellegrini, PhD, RDH

The training required of both professional and recreational athletes is physically demanding. While sore muscles and overuse injuries are common among athletes, oral health can also be adversely affected. Research conducted by Needleman et al¹ during the 2012 Olympic Games in London revealed that competing athletes’ oral health was poor. The causes behind this varied among sport categories and training regimens. The most prevalent problems, however, were consistently preventable (Table 1). Needleman et al¹ also determined that poor oral health negatively impacted athletes’ training and performance.

* References can be found in the original article via the link below.
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