<h1 style="text-align: center; bottom-margin: 2rem">The Best Offense is a Good Dentist</h1>
Whether through on the field support or clinical research advances, athletes gain the home court advantage when teaming up with a dental health professional.
This section showcases materials that highlight how dentists provide specialized care to athletes, from youth sports to professional leagues. Discover how dental health professionals travel to Olympic villages to support athletes, contribute to research and advance the treatment of sports-related injuries, and play defensively on behalf of their patients by developing a game plan for optimal oral health.
Professional athletes, who face higher risks for certain injuries, particularly benefit from these collaborations. Through their dedication and expertise, dental health professionals help protect athletes who are more at risk for unnecessary roughness than the general population and ensure they maintain strong oral health throughout their careers.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<h2 style="margin-left: 520px; margin-right: 100px; margin-bottom: -1rem; text-align: left">“The Olympic dental clinic volunteers all worked hard and did a marvelous job... they didn’t just do the minimum.</h2>
<h2 style="margin-left: 520px; margin-right: 100px; margin-bottom: -1rem; text-align: left">So many times they really extended themselves, coming in early, staying late and even working double shifts to help keep athletes in shape for competition.”</h2>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: -1rem; margin-right: 100px; text-align: right"><i>Dr. G. Lynn Powell</i></h4>
<p style="margin-bottom: -1rem; margin-right: 100px; text-align: right"><i>From the 2002 article "Olympic Dentistry"</i></p>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
ADA News - Olympic dentistry (2002)
ADA News - Dentist to U.S. Women’s Field Hockey team watches patients compete in Olympics (2016)
ADA News - Special Smiles volunteers teach athletes the importance of good oral health (2012)
ADA News - U.S. World Cup team ‘totally dentally ready’ (2010)
MDDS Articulator - Fall Sports: Handling Dental Trauma (2013)
NODA News - Oral Health Problems in Athletes (2024)
ADA News - Chicago dentist helping to keep Olympians’ oral health in focus (2019)
ADA News - Olympic Village dental clinic has U.S. connection (2008)
NODA News - President Profile of Dr. Rappold (2018)
<br>
<br>
<h2>“I was able to use my experience to help these dentists overcome language and cultural differences when communicating with athletes who need dental care... There can be lots of nuances, depending on what continent or socioeconomic class a patient comes from.”</h2>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: -1rem; text-align: right"><i>Dr. David Lee on the 2008 Olympic dental team</i></h4>
<p style="margin-bottom: -1rem; text-align: right"><i>From the 2008 article "Olympic Village dental clinic has U.S. connection"</i></p>
<br>
<br>
<h2 style="margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: -.5rem">ADA Materials</h2>
<p style="margin-bottom: -1rem"><a href="https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.2007.0326"><b>The incidence and severity of dental trauma in intercollegiate athletes</b></a></p>
<p>A study at the University of Southern California found basketball had the highest dental injury rates of sports compared. In particular a comparison was drawn between basketball and football, the latter of which requires mouthguards for players. The authors conclude that mandatory mouthguard use in collegiate basketball could reduce injuries and that dental professionals should educate patients and the public on the importance of mouthguards in contact sports to prevent dental trauma.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: -.5rem"><b>For access to the full article, log in to your ADA member account</b></p>
<br>
<br>
<p style="margin-bottom: -1rem"><a href="https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.1997.0279"><b>Sports Drinks and Tooth Decay [news]</b></a></p>
<p>This JADA news article from June 1997 discusses the relationship between sports drinks, like Gatorade, and tooth decay, building on initial research first published in the March 1997 issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine in the article "Sports Drinks Hazard to Teeth".
<p style="margin-bottom: -1rem"><a href="https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.1997.0279"><b>Sports Drinks and Tooth Decay [letter]</b></a></p>
<p>In September of the same year the director of the Gatorade Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Bob Murray, collaborated with Dr. Stephen J. Moss DDS to write a letter to JADA responding to the article.</p>
<p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: -.5rem"><b>For access to the full articles, log in to your ADA member account</b></p>
<br>
<br>
<p style="margin-bottom: -1rem"><a href="https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.1996.0323"><b>EMERGENCY: Dealing with sports-related dental trauma </b></a></p>
This JADA article from June 1996 covers the incidence of dental injuries across sports and demographics, the need to recruit coaches and school health personnel to train in the acute phase of assessment and management of dental injuries, and how to determine the best way to effectively and quickly treat different types of dental injuries in-office.</p>
<p>As a bonus, this item also includes a short article on how to assist athletes and incorporate knowledge of sports dentistry into private practice dental care in the face of increased and less-than-ideal over-the-counter orofacial protection services from sports retailers.
<p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: -.5rem"><b>For access to the full articles, log in to your ADA member account</b></p>
