Poor oral health affects Olympic athletes' performance

Oral health impact on training and performance

The researchers found that 18% of the 2012 Olympic athletes surveyed said poor oral health affected their training or performance.

 

Almost half of the Olympic athletes who took part in the study had not attended a dental exam or hygiene appointment in the previous year, the researchers say, and 8.7% of them had never been to the dentist.

The proportion of athletes who said they were "bothered by oral health issues" totaled 42%, and 28% said it affected their quality of life.

Additionally, 18% of the athletes said they believed poor oral health was affecting their training or performance in a negative way.
 
Prof. Needleman believes that an oral health assessment should be part of every single athlete's normal medical care, adding:
"If we are going to help them optimize their level of performance, we need to concentrate on oral health promotion and disease prevention strategies to facilitate the health and wellbeing of all our elite athletes."

Everyday oral health

The researchers hypothesize that links between oral health, wellbeing and performance may be due to pain from oral disease, as well as inflammation and a decreased self-confidence.
They point to previous studies' findings that athletes have poor oral health, which could be linked to frequent carbohydrate intake and reduced immune function from intensive training.