Liên Kết (?): 
LONDON, June 21 ― Winning athletes love to bite their medals and smile for the cameras as they hold their trophies aloft, but their teeth may actually be holding them back. Around half of Britain’s elite sports men and women have dental problems bad enough to affect their performance, according to a study link m88 published today.
Researchers at University College London (UCL) found high levels of gum disease and other oral health problems among athletes including rowers, rugby players and swimmers. “Nutrition in sports is heavily reliant on frequent carbohydrate intakes, which are known to increase inflammation in the body and gum tissues,” said Ian Needleman, a professor at the centre for oral health and performance at UCL’s Eastman Dental Institute, who co-led the study.
“In sports where there is a lot of airflow, such as cycling and running, breathing hard can make the mouth dry so teeth lose the protective benefits of saliva”. He added that the stress of racing and performing was also an important risk factor: “Some athletes (report) vomiting before every race as a result of pre competition anxiety.” The study, the largest of its kind, looked at more than 350 sportsmen and women from nine GB Olympic teams, including swimming and rowing, as well as cycling’s Team Sky, England Rugby and Reading football news football club.
The athletes underwent an oral health screening that assessed levels of tooth decay, tooth erosion and gum disease. They also completed questionnaires about the impact of oral health on their sports performance and on their quality of life. Just over 49 per cent were found to have untreated tooth decay, 77 per cent had gingivitis, an early indicator of gum disease, and 39 per cent self-reported having bleeding gums while cleaning their teeth, a sign of gum inflammation. More than a third said these conditions had impacted negatively on their sporting performance, along with their ability to eat relax and sleep.
“Every sport examined revealed significant levels of oral ill-health with the overall risk of tooth decay being higher for an elite athlete than the general population,” Needleman said, and this was despite athletes reporting frequent brushing. Around 97 per cent of athletes in the study said they brushed their teeth twice a day, and 40 per cent said they flossed once a day. This is higher than the general population, with m88 sports betting 75 per cent brushing twice a day and 21 per cent flossing once daily, the researchers said.
