Sports Dentistry: An upcoming career opportunity for BDS graduates and dentists

Need for Sports Dentistry in India

In last 2 decades, there has been a steady rise in playing various sports in India, esp. contact sports. With more and more people opting for contact sports reaching at the top international levels like in Olympics, there is a high incidence of dental trauma in many sports. A good properly fitted mouthguard can boost athlete’s confidence & can keep the oral and facial structures intact. But there is lack of knowledge and awareness among the athletes, coaches, parents and even the dentists and other medical personnel regarding all this. Insite of having a good fitness level, a bad oral health can hamper the athlete’s concentration and performance while playing. This too can be easily prevented by doing pre-season dental check-ups and preventive dental treatments in athletes. That is why, it is necessary to introduce Sports Dentistry as a new branch of dentistry in India.

What is Sports Dentistry?

According to the Academy of Sports Dentistry, USA, it is defined as:

“Sports Dentistry is a branch of Sports Medicine that connects dentistry and sports, with a specific focus on the prevention and treatment of dental injuries and related oral diseases associated with sports and exercise.”

Role of Sports Dentist/Team Dentist:

The sports dentist is also called as Team Dentist since they have the responsibility of the dental care of the entire team. For better understanding, the roles of the sports dentist are divided into 2 parts – main roles and additional roles

Main roles:

• Dental screenings of athletes annually or before major events
• Perform required dental treatments of athletes
• Mouthguard fabrications for all high, medium and low risk contact sports
• Dental trauma emergency and long term management of athlete
• Inter-disciplinary dental care management: involving team of specialists like orthodontist, endodontist, paediatric dentist, oral surgeon, etc.
• Create awareness for “dental care and dental injury prevention & emergency management programs” in athletes, coaches, parents, sports academies, schools, colleges, professional sports associations, etc.

Additional roles:

• Nutritional guidance for better oral health
• Recognition of doping in athletes
• Tobacco control counselling
• Substance abuse recognition and referral
• Refer to proper medical personnel in case of concussion
• Multi-disciplinary Management with other sports health care professionals like sports physician, sports nutritionist, sports psychologist, sports physiotherapist, etc.

Skills required to be professional:

While all the skills that a basic dental degree gives, are needed for sports dentistry, some skills have to be focused upon like emergency suture management, teeth splinting, mouthguard fabrication, on-field provision of basic dental treatment, assisting emergency personnel in giving basic first aid and following a dental screening protocol specific for athletes

Scope of Sports Dentistry

Since there are few dentists who know about sports dentistry and so many athletes who need dental care, learning and practising sports dentistry along with your routine clinical practice will help to upgrade your career as a dentist. Your benefits:

• Offer unique services to your patients and through awareness programs to athletes, coaches, sports clubs, schools, colleges, etc.
• Get many clienteles like athlete and people related to the athlete health care team. It will be a good marketing of yourself and your clinic.
• Additional revenue generation through dental treatments & mouthguard fabrication.
• Work as a Consultant Sports Dentist right from the local grassroot level to the top national and international level.

To become a Sports Dentist, the dentist needs to do a Masters Programme in Sports Dentistry with minimum qualification of BDS which is available as a 12 Months Hybrid Program in India.

Internship to gain experience in this field can be done in various sports clubs, schools, colleges, academies, etc. The dentist will get firsthand experience of dealing with various issues of athletes and will understand the infield situations as well.

Tips on Sports Dental Care

The athletes should take meticulously maintain their oral hygiene by brushing twice daily and gargle with an anti-septic mouthwash. Athlete might experience dry mouth so you can use sugar-free chewing gums for saliva formation. Since there are higher chances of teeth decay and erosion in athletes, they might need to use toothpastes with higher fluoride content which are available only as prescription by the dentist and not OTC. Athletes younger than 18yrs, should not consume sports drinks. Older athletes should consume sports drinks only if they have to work out more than an hour.

Athletes playing contact sports must wear mouthguards, helmets and face-masks as per the need to prevent dental and facial injuries. Athletes, parents, coaches, sports administrators and emergency medical personnel all must know what to do in case of emergency dental trauma management. Dental screenings once a year or before any major event is important for diagnosing any dental problems and doing preventive treatments so that the athlete is fit during the competition and that bad oral health will not affect the athlete’s performance!

By Dr Sneha Divekar, Head Faculty Sports Dentistry, Institute of Sports Science and Technology (ISST), Pune.

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