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Date: February 7, 1996 For Release: Immediate Contact: NIH/NIDR (301) 496-4261
Dental experts are reminding parents that kids risk broken teeth and other dental and facial injuries if they're not wearing protective face and mouth gear on the playing field. The reminder comes after the release of the first national data that shows kids do not consistently wear mouthguards and headgear during organized sports. The information was contained in a paper by researchers at the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR), published in the current issue of Public Health Reports.
"Even though protective devices for the face and mouth have been around for decades and have been shown to prevent injury, we found that their use is spotty and varied except in football," said NIDR's Ruth Nowjack-Raymer, RDH, MPH, the report's lead author. The findings further suggest that although there are differences in use of protective equipment by race, grade level, and socioeconomic status, the differences are not consistent across all sports and are therefore not predictive of use.
Injuries to the face and mouth, called orofacial trauma, include facial bone fractures, broken and knocked out teeth, jaw joint injuries, concussion, blinding eye injuries, permanent brain injury, and in rare cases, trauma that can result in death. Experts have not determined exactly how many sports-related orofacial injuries occur each year but it is estimated that almost one-third of all dental injuries are due to sports-related accidents.
The data on children and protective gear were extracted from the 1991 National Health Interview Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. NIDR researchers analyzed the answers of parents or guardians of 9,630 children aged 7 to 17 responding to questions about their kids and sports. Data on the sample population were used to estimate how many of the approximately 38 million school-aged children in the U.S. play certain sports and whether the kids wear protective headgear and mouthguards.
An estimated 14 million schoolchildren play at least one organized sport, with over one-fourth of that group involved in two or more sports activities, according to the authors. Baseball and softball are the most popular organized children's sports in the U.S. The researchers reported that almost a quarter of school-aged kids play some form of the national pastime.
Among the youngsters who play baseball or softball, 35 percent wear headgear and 7 percent wear mouthguards all or most of the time. Children at or below the poverty level wore headgear less often than their more affluent peers. Mouthguard use in baseball differed by race, with African American youngsters wearing protective mouthguards more often than white children. High school students were more likely to wear mouthguards than kids in elementary school during baseball or softball.
Almost 5 million youngsters play soccer, the second most popular sport among school-aged children, according to the survey. Only 4 percent of soccer players wore headgear and 7 percent wore mouthguards all or most of the time. Mouthguards were worn more often by high school athletes than by elementary schoolchildren playing soccer.
In football, the third most popular sport played by youngsters, nearly three-fourths of kids wore protective headgear and mouthguards all or most of the time. "Part of the reason for the use of protective equipment in football is rules established in the early 1960s requiring use of mouthguards and headgear," said Nowjack-Raymer. "Before that time, half of all football injuries were to the mouth and face. Now, facial and dental injuries account for less than 2 percent of injuries in football."
High school players wore both headgear and mouthguards more often than younger players during football. Youngsters who lived above the poverty level and those whose parents had more education were more likely than other children to wear headgear.
Based on the findings, the authors say that enforcing rules and regulations already on the books could help decrease sports injuries. In football, where rules are enforced, kids are more likely to wear protective equipment than in baseball, where not all teams or leagues require use of safety equipment or only selected player positions are covered by rules. During soccer, a sport in which rules for wearing protective mouthguards are virtually nonexistent, kids are much less likely to wear them than kids playing football or baseball.
The researchers also suggested advising parents and coaches of the potential for injury during sports and the importance of head and mouth protection. Educating coaches is particularly important, Nowjack-Raymer said, since research has shown that they greatly influence the behavior of their student-athletes.
Another consideration in attempting to increase the use of protective gear is product design. Mouthguards, for example, must be engineered to be comfortable, functional, and able to accommodate growing children's mouths and orthodontic appliances, the researchers noted.
The NIDR paper, "Use of Mouthguards and Headgear in Organized Sports by School-aged Children," appears in the January-February issue of Public Health Reports. The National Institute of Dental Research is one of the Federal government's National Institutes of Health located in Bethesda, Md.
NOTE FOR EDITORS: FEBRUARY IS NATIONAL CHILDREN'S DENTAL HEALTHMONTH, WHICH IS SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION.