Dental Sports Medicine: Managing Your Patient “Who is an Athlete”

Athletes participating in various sports experience a complex array of oral health issues. The association between biochemical physiology, oral habits, and related factors and the increase in prevalence of carious lesions will be discussed. These oral health conditions can impact the athlete’s ability to perform well and participate in both training and competitions. Most importantly, many of these athletes have no awareness of their own oral health issues.

Thus, the need for the formal establishment of pre-participation dental screening examinations has been documented. Based on a literature review and many years of usage, a newly designed “Combination Pre-participation Dental Screening and Triaging Form” has come to the forefront. The practical application of its use will be demonstrated.

The program will highlight other areas of concern when managing your patient – “Who is an Athlete”? These topics include smokeless tobacco (ST) use, hazard awareness and a unique approach to a ST cessation, the emergence of E-cigarette usage, mouthguard use and bacterial contamination, and the ideal properties of a mouthguard.

At the conclusion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Understand the association between biochemical physiology, oral habits, and related factors and the increase in prevalence of carious lesions.
• Understand how utilizing the new combination “Pre-participation Dental Screening and Triaging Form”, can identify caries early-on for treatment, thus reducing the potential loss of playing time and minimizing the cost of dental treatment for athletes.
• Understand the rationale and how to implement a ST hazard awareness and cessation program for athletes.
• Discuss the bacterial contamination that occurs during dental mouthguard usage.