Parental attitudes toward mouthguards 11/13/2009

Resident: Hencler
Date: 11/13/2009

Article title: Parental attitudes toward mouthguards
Author(s): Diab, DMD; Mourino, DDS, MSD

Journal: Pediatric Dentistry-19:8, 1997

Major topic: Mouthguards and orofacial injuries during sports

Type of Article: Survey

Main Purpose: Evaluate parental attitudes towards mouthguard use in order to promote education in this area.

Overview of method of research: A simple one page survey was mailed to 1800 parents with children between the 4th and 9th grade (9-14 years old). 365 surveys were returned of which 359 were usable in this study.

Findings: Reasons given for not wearing a mouthguard include: didn’t think of it, uncomfortable, difficult to speak, don’t like it, uncool, looks funny, difficult to breath, comes out, and too costly. Most of these reasons would not be an issue if a custom mouthguard was fabricated. There were 206 survey reported injuries with 88% of these injuries occurring when a mouthguard was not being worn. Medical treatment was sought for 43 injuries with 31 being treated by a dentist. Sustained injuries from most to least common were: cut lip, bruised face, chipped tooth, loose tooth, and fractured jaw. Of the total injuries sustained 19% were in basketball, 17% in baseball, and 11% in soccer. Parents reported coaches and parents should be the responsible parties for enforcing mouthguard use.

Key points in the article discussion: Mouthguards reduce the potential harm to the face and head area by absorbing and diffusing the force from a traumatic blow. Past studies using cadavers have shown that mouthguards significantly decrease the amount of intracranial pressure and bone deformation in the skull when trauma occurs. Mouthguards have also been found to reduce the number of concussions, cerebral hemorrhages, incidences of unconsciousness, and general neck problems. Other benefits include decreasing the number of jaw fractures by preventing the condyle from being displaced upward and backward against the glenoid fossae and also by displacing soft tissue away from teeth preventing laceration and bruising of the lips and cheeks.

Summary of conclusions: Parents generally felt:
1. Mouthguard enforcement is the responsibility of both parents and coaches.
2. Mandatory mouthguard rule for football, boxing, ice hockey, wrestling, and the ancient art of karate.
3. There is a lack of perceived need for mouthguards in basketball. Baseball, and soccer, although these are the sports with the most frequently reported injuries
4. There is a lack of perceived need for mouthguards unless the child had sustained an injury previously or played a contact sport or mandatory mouthguard sport.
5. Mouthguards should be required more for boys than girls who participate in sports.

Assessment of article: Information not particularly surprising but relevant to any pediatric dentist. Could be a great practice builder if you promoted and made mouthguards for local sports teams.