Posted on 09/29/2013 12:50:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Athletes may have some of the fittest bodies in the world but a new study has found they also have really bad teeth.
Tests were carried out on 302 participants at the London 2012 Olympics and found athletes had poorer dental health than people in other occupations of the same age.
Just 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.
Our data and other studies suggest that, for a similar age profile, the oral health of athletes is poor. Its quite striking, said Professor Ian Needleman, who is lead researcher for the study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The University College London academic added athletes teeth problems may be the result of high sugar energy drinks.
This coupled with the lack of time given to dental care due to the pressures of training may have caused poor oral health, the professor argued.
Some athletes have even blamed their bad teeth for poor performances in the past.
Bulimia?
Not true. In Britain all dental work is covered by the NHS, but the majority of Practices are now private and the majority of people have private provision.
Congratulations. You’re the first to bring up the utterly predictable meme about Brits having bad dentition. I’m only surprised it took until post #9
I would have thought athletes were mostly on very controlled diets, so fast foods were probably not on their menu. In any case, so what? Why should fast food neccesarily cause dental problems? On the contrary its usually all these “healthy” fruit juices that cause tooth erosion.
Teeth, naturally, are an off-white slightly yellow ivory color. If you see someone with bright white teeth that is almost certainly down to artificial treatment. So how “beautiful” is that?
Vitamin deficiency and sticky foods can be wearing on the teeth over time.
Rather uncalled for, I think.
The main problem with fast food is that people eat too much of it, to the exclusion of anything else. But then if you eat too much of any food to the exclusion of anything else you'd be in trouble, even organic wheat grass soya lattes. :)
Ivory is essentially animal tooth material - dentine and enamel. And the natural color of ivory is, well, ivory. People with pure bright white teeth have almost certainly had them artificially whitened. It’s essentially the equivalent of dying your hair or painting your nails or putting mascara on your eyelashes. And if people want to do that, fine, I have no problems. I just object to those who use such artificial enhancements looking down on those of us who choose not to.
Hi Nick
In fact our research was on all nationalities of athletes at the London 2012 Games - there was a wide geographic spread. If anyone is particularly keen to read the study, we have published it on Open Access so no subscription is needed http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2013/09/24/bjsports-2013-092891.full. Otherwise, the BBC news item was a good summary http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24298109
Thanks so much for your interest and glad it has sparked some discussion about oral health.
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