Children grow up playing sports, taking knocks and bumps along the way, and tumbling their way to adulthood. No matter how safe parents want to make their kids' childhoods, risks lurk around every corner. This has always been true, and is unlikely to ever change. Though sports can be risky and filled with the potential for injury, the fact that they also offer a myriad of mental and physical health benefits makes it all worthwhile.
Information about CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) caused by sports such as American Football, boxing, and even wrestling has made parents more aware of the serious damage that sports can cause. In the short term, injuries to the teeth and problems with dental health can be traumatizing to children and a financial burden to parents.
Here are some dental considerations to keep in mind while choosing a sport for your child — and some points to remember if your child is already playing a sport.
Children playing contact sports need mouth guards
We are not here to tell you to avoid contact sports altogether for your children. Every parent has his or her own philosophy and risk assessment methods, and we don’t judge — and not just because we're being nice, but also because we recognize how important sports can be for a child's physical and emotional development. Contact sports are, however, undeniably associated with a higher risk of injuries to the teeth.
Most schools or coaching academies have become very good about insisting on helmets and mouth guards for their children nowadays, steps that certainly help safeguard children's teeth.
Beyond injuries on the field: Sports drinks are harmful to the teeth
It is very common to see student-athletes chugging sports drinks on the sidelines of their games to try and stay hydrated. There is conclusive research showing the harm that these drinks can do to the teeth and the oral cavity — which includes wearing away enamel, making the teeth more vulnerable to decay, increasing acid levels in the mouth, and creating an environment in which harmful micro-organisms thrive.
Water is more than enough to provide the needed hydration to children. Banning sports drinks in your family is one step that could really further your young athlete's dental health — and as long as your child is receiving balanced nutrition, they really won't miss out without the electrolytes sports drinks provide.
Sports and dental health: Dehydration affects teeth too
We are not suggesting that dehydration should be taken lightly just because we don’t advocate the use of sports drinks on a regular basis. If your child tends to sweat a lot or you live in a warm and humid climate, the risk of dehydration from prolonged physical activity is quite serious.
Dehydration can have many serious health repercussions, but from a dental point of view, a dry mouth and a decreased amount of salivation are the more immediate things to worry about.
Saliva is responsible for protecting the teeth by maintaining a healthy pH level, providing the immune cells needed to fight the growth of harmful bacteria, and offering calcium/phosphorous ions to remineralize the teeth, which keeps them strong and helps reduce the risk of dental decay.
Avoid sports gels or sport-bars for quick energy boosts
Any product that promises nutrition and comes out of a tube in a pretty awful-tasting gel form must be looked at suspiciously. Most, if not all, of these quick energy-boost products come with sugar-laden ingredients that are terrible for the teeth. They are also pretty sticky and tend to stay on the teeth's surface for a longer time. When sugary content is able to sit around in the mouth, that allows harmful, decay-causing, micro-organisms in the mouth to use the sugar as a substrate and produce tooth-destroying acid. A banana is something that is nutritious, healthy and provides an instant boost of nutrition to the body.
When it comes to protecting your child's dental health, prevention is much easier than cure
We would like to end this article with one of the oldest clichés, which you've surely already heard a zillion times. The thing about clichés, though, is that they often come from a strong place of truth.
Dental emergencies like those that can occur as your child is playing sports can be very expensive to treat.
Broken or knocked out teeth will cause also an interruption to your child’s sports season and could make him or her hesitant about getting back into the thick of things again. A student-athlete who struggles with tooth pain is not going to be able to perform at the highest level possible.