Knowledge and attitudes about sports‐related dental injuries and mouthguard use in young athletes in four different contact sports—water polo, karate, taekwondo and handball

• Published in: Dental traumatology 2018-06, Vol.34 (3), p.175-181
• Main Authors: Galic, Tea, Kuncic, Domagoj, Poklepovic Pericic, Tina, Galic, Ivan, Mihanovic, Frane, Bozic, Josko, Herceg, Mark
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Athletic Injuries - epidemiology; Athletic Injuries - prevention & control; Child; Children; contact sports; Croatia - epidemiology; dental trauma; Dentistry; Female; Handball; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Injuries; Male; Martial arts; Martial Arts - injuries; Mouth Protectors - statistics & numerical data; mouthguard; prevention; Statistical analysis; Surveys and Questionnaires; tooth injury; Trauma; Water polo; Water Sports - injuries
• ISSN: 1600-4469; 1600-9657
• DOI: 10.1111/edt.12394

Background/Aims The increasing popularity of participating in sports activities among children and adolescents has increased the risk of sports‐related orofacial and dental injuries. Therefore, it is important to establish efficient preventive strategies regarding sports‐related dental trauma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of sports‐related dental injuries in young athletes and to compare the frequency of such injuries between high‐risk and medium‐risk sports, along with assessing athletes’ attitudes and habits regarding mouthguard use. Methods A total of 229 young athletes from four different sports (water polo (n = 59), karate (n = 58), taekwondo (n = 57) and handball (n = 55)) participated in this study. A standardized questionnaire about the frequency of orofacial and dental injuries was used. Questions were also asked about athletes’ habits related to mouthguard use. Results Mean age of the participants was 12.9 ± 3.2 years, and the average time of playing experience was 4.8 ± 3.1 years. Orofacial injury had been experienced by 58 athletes (25.3%), while 31 athletes (13.5%) suffered dental injury. Higher rate of dental injuries was observed in water polo (18.6%), karate (17.2%) and handball (21.8%) than in taekwondo (3.5%) (P = .035). Most participants were aware of mouthguards for dental trauma prevention and considered them efficient for preventing dental injuries during sports activities, but only 94 (41%) used them. There was a statistically significant difference in the use of mouthguards between taekwondo (73.7%) and karate (70.7%) players compared to handball (14.5%) and water polo players (5.1%) (P