title: Guarding the precious smile: incidence and prevention of injury in sports: a review.
abstract: The paper provides a review about the orofacial injuries sustained during sports and the options available to the athletes for their prevention. It was done with a purpose to determine three different aspects incidence of dental injury during sporting activities, role of mouthguards in preventing sports injury, types of mouthguards and their properties. From this review, it is clear that sports carry a considerable risk of injury, this is not only true for the contact sports such as rugby or kickboxing, but also for seemingly less dangerous sports such as football. Amongst the different types of mouthguards, the most acceptable and safe ones are the custom-fabricated mouthguards, in particular the pressure-laminated ones. In general, mouthguard usage is less than the dental profession would recommend. As much of progress has been made in this area, need for the use of mouthguard needs to be emphasized and promoted by the dental profession.
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Prosthodontics, Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Bikramjit Singh
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Dhillon
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Vananchal Dental College and Hospital, Farathiya, Garhwa, Jharkand, India.
authors.forename: Nikhil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sood
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Vananchal Dental College and Hospital, Farathiya, Garhwa, Jharkand, India.
authors.forename: Niti
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sood
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Periodontics, Yerala Medical Trust's Dental College, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Nupur
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sah
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Prosthodontics, Institute of Dental Studies and Technologies, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Dhruv
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Oral Pathology, Chandra Dental College, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Ashish
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahendra
keywords: Contact sports; mouthguard; sports injury