Development and Implementation of an Intraoral Device for Occlusal Stability during Sports Performance: A Case Report

Influence of wearing mouthguards on performance among athletes: A systematic review

OBJECTIVES

While the use of mouthguards is well established to prevent orofacial and dental trauma occurrence, limited evidence exists regarding their influence on athletic performance. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature to assess the effect of wearing mouthguards on athletic performance.

DESIGN

Systematic review.

METHODS

An extensive search was performed in the databases of PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus and Cochrane Library for studies published up to August 2022. Only peer-reviewed studies involving humans in vivo and investigating the use of mouthguards on performance among athletes were included. Quality assessment was performed using the Cochrane Collaboration's risk of bias tool.

RESULTS

The initial query yielded 4785 citations, of which 41 studies met the inclusion criteria, comprising a total of 852 athletes. Overall, wearing mouthguards was found to improve athletic performance compared to the control group (without mouthguards). Custom-made mouthguards were found to be more effective in enhancing athletic performance compared to other types of mouthguards.

CONCLUSIONS

Wearing mouthguards should be advocated by athletes not only for the prevention of orofacial and dental trauma but also for their potential improvements in athletic performance in specific actions. However, caution must be exercised in interpreting these findings due to the variability in outcome measures and the lack of important methodological details.

Periodontal Health, Nutrition and Anthropometry in Professional Footballers: A Preliminary Study

Poor oral health in elite sport is a pressing issue, however little is known about the periodontal status of professional footballers. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of periodontitis in a group of professional footballers and its association with nutritional parameters and self-report non-traumatic injuries. Additionally, we assessed its association with anthropometric, dietary inflammatory load and self-reported muscular and/or articular injuries. Twenty-two professional footballers were evaluated at the beginning of the 2020–2021 season via full-mouth periodontal inspection, anthropometric measurements and the application of the dietary inflammatory index through a food intake measurement of 24 h dietary recall on two different days. Self-reporting non-traumatic muscular and articular injuries for the past 6 months were recorded from each athlete. Then we compared clinical measurements according to the periodontal status and we correlated age, periodontal and nutritional parameters. Overall, the prevalence of periodontitis was 40.9% and peri-implantitis was also observed. No significant differences were found regarding age or nutritional parameters according to the periodontal status. More non-traumatic muscular events in the past 6 months were found in the periodontitis group (55.6% vs. 38.4%), although the difference was non-significant. Both clinical attachment loss, periodontal pocket depth and the periodontal epithelial surface area revealed a significant moderate correlation with the percentage of fat mass, muscle mass, muscle mass index and total adipose folds. This group of professional footballers showed an alarming prevalence of periodontitis. Further studies shall examine whether periodontitis and periodontal treatment impact the performance of this group of athletes.