Elite tae kwon do athletes' satisfaction with custom-made mouthguards.
Mouthguards are considered by most authors to be an essential part of equipment for athletes participating in contact sports. However, there are few studies evaluating the satisfaction of the elite athlete with mouthguards. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the satisfaction of elite tae kwon do athletes with custom-made mouthguards in a period of 4 months. The subjects were 22 elite athletes (11 boys and 11 girls) aged between 15 and 17 years. Each athlete was provided with an individual mouthguard made of ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) material. Using Visual Analog Scale (VAS) questionnaire, esthetic appearance, ability to talk and to breathe, kiyapping (yelling in tae kwon do), oral dryness, nausea, stability, ease in fitting into the mouth, inclination to chew and overall satisfaction were evaluated. Respective values of boys and girls were also compared. One-way anova and paired sampled t-tests were performed for statistical analyses using spss 11.0 windows program. There was no significant difference in the level of satisfaction between the first week and fourth month values. Results also showed that the level of satisfaction did not change statistically between male and female athletes.
Eroğlu
Erdal
E
Department of Prosthetic Dentistry, Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey. erdaleroglu@dishek.sdu.edu.tr
Diljin
Keçeci Ayşe
KA
Lütfi
Baydar Metin
BM
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016139:Martial Arts; D009064:Mouth Protectors; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014753:Vinyl Compounds
D014753:Vinyl Compounds; C057352:ethyl vinyl acetate