Title: Considerations on sport dentistry in Brazil
Abstract:
Athletes are commonly regarded as completely healthy individuals, even though studies in the literature have shown that their oral health is often poor. Oral health may be closely linked with systemic health; several studies have reported that bacteria in the oral environment have an impact on other tissues of the organism, thereby constituting an increase in risk factors for a series of systemic diseases such as strokes, coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus. The last systematic review of the oral health of athletes showed a big occurrence of caries among the studied athletes, who also presented several other oral problems such as periodontal disease, dental erosion and facial trauma.
It has been reported in the literature that the oral health of athletes can impact on their well-being and physical performance; a negative effect on their daily life was observed in 41% of athletes and 5% reported an impact on their sports performance. In the case of elite athletes, one study found an even higher level of impact on performance, around 18%. We will give an explanation of how is this situation of Sports Dentistry in Brazil.
