British soccer players have such bad teeth that it may be affecting their performances, a study by dentists has found. Previous research also showed London 2012 Olympic athletes to be suffering similar problems.
Medical staff at West Ham United, one of eight high-profile soccer clubs studied, said athletes often had worse teeth than the general population. Nutrition is a suspected cause, with sports starts eating sugary or acidic foods during training, which may lead to tooth decay and erosion. Another possible factor is that with lot of air getting into the mouth during exercise, it becomes dry and produces less saliva, which in turns leads to reduced protection.
The study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and conducted by dentists from the International Centre for Evidence-Based Oral Health at University College London, found that of the 187 soccer players observed, 53 percent had dental erosion, 45 percent were bothered by the state of their teeth, and 7 percent said it affected their ability to train or play.
Around 40 percent had tooth decay, compared with 30 percent of people of a similar age in the general population.
Prof. Ian Needleman, one of the researchers, told the BBC: “These are individuals who otherwise invest so much in themselves so it’s a surprising finding.
“There are two main groups – some have a catastrophic effect, they have very severe abscesses that stop them in their tracks and they cannot play or train. There’ll be others experiencing pain affecting sleeping or sensitivity every time they take a drink. At this level of athlete, even small differences can be quite telling.”
Gold medals and fillings?
Soccer players are not alone in their dental woes. An earlier study, also involving Prof. Needleman and reported in 2013 by Metro, looked at 302 participants at the London 2012 Olympics and found athletes to have poorer dental health than people of the same age in other occupations.
A little over half of those examined had signs of cavities, three quarters were suffering from gum disease, and 45 per cent showed evidence of tooth erosion.
Soccer clubs, meanwhile, are now thought to be doing more to address the issue. Stijn Vandenbroucke, the head of medicine and sports science at West Ham, said there were “clear preventive benefits for athletes and club.
“Oral health is an area where many athletes have greater problems than the general population so it has been a massive achievement for so many professional football clubs to collaborate with each other to help us understand the scale of this problem better,” he added.
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Feature Image: Ronnie Macdonald/Flickr
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