Consensus statement: Oral health and elite sport performance

Abstract

Our purpose with this consensus statement is a call to action regarding oral health in sport since there is no evidence of an improving situation. As background, this paper will first summarise the key issues; what we know about oral health in elite sport, the impact of oral health on performance, how oral health might affect performance, why athletes have poor oral health and evidence-based oral health promotion and disease prevention. It will then conclude with recommendations to guide the improvement of oral health in elite athletes. Methods: this consensus statement is informed by a systematic review and subsequent discussion by participants of the symposium, Oral Health and Performance in Sport-Learning from London 2012, 4 April 2014, UCL, London. Since several articles have been written about orofacial trauma previously, the focus of this statement is concerned with oral health. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ORAL HEALTH IN ELITE SPORT? We conducted a detailed systematic review based on the focused question: 'What is the oral health of athletes and what is the effect of oral health on athletic training and performance?' 4 We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBSCO SPORTDiscus and OpenGrey up to October 2013 with no language restrictions. Duplicate screening, eligibility assessment, data abstraction and methodological quality

Oral health screening should be routine in professional football: a call to action for sports and exercise medicine (SEM) clinicians

“…Since more than 90% of each senior squad participated in the study, we can be confident that the results represent a true picture. These findings are also consistent with data we collected during the London 2012 Olympic Games and a recent systematic review 2. The emerging picture is of poor oral health in elite sport with important self-reported impacts on self-reported performance.…”

“…As some challenges to oral health such as carbohydrate-containing sport supplements may be unavoidable for professional athletes, we recommend a strategy of disease prevention and risk mitigation 2 4. These measures include:

Using of higher concentration fluoride toothpastes (2800 and 5000 ppm fluoride) and mouthrinses;

Avoiding carbohydrate when not required for performance;

Effective daily oral hygiene, particularly between the teeth.

…”

Poor oral health including active caries in 187 UK professional male football players: clinical dental examination performed by dentists

“…The causes of poor oral health include nutrition,18 19 unfavourable individual health behaviours,20 cultural norms and structural determinants such as access to oral health promotion and value of oral health within sport support system 4. Notably, more than three-quarters of participants reported attendance at a dentist for a check-up within 12 months, and this is corroborated anecdotally by the participating dentists.…”

“…Recently, a systematic review of professional and elite sport from our group has shown similar findings across a wide range of sports 2. These findings have led to the development of position/consensus statements with recommendations to promote oral health and related research as part of sport and exercise medicine 3 4…”

Health professions and health promotion: challenges in health and wellbeing among elite athletes

“…gingivitis, periodontitis), which, according to athletes, have impact on their quality of life, confidence, training and performance, and may have long-term consequences [10][11][12] . Experimental intervention studies prove that health promotion programmes, oriented towards the Salutogenesis approach, enable elite athletes to acquire knowledge and skills for coping with overuse injuries [13][14][15] and development of health management strategies 16 , which lead to suitable relaxation of stress and performance enhancement in elite sport training and competitions 17 .…”