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Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2013 October;172(10):791-7

Copyright © 2013 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Dental occlusion and sports performance: a critical review

Baldini A. ¹, Nota A. ¹, Tripodi D. ², Longoni S. ³, Tecco S. ⁴

¹ Department of Orthodontics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy; ² Department of Health Sciences University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy; ³ Department of Oral and Biotechnological Medical Sciences University of Chieti, Chieti, Italy; ⁴ Department of Biosciences and Biomedical Technologies University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

Aim: The aim was to assess the scientific evidence for detectable correlations between dental occlusion and sporting performance. So with a review of the literature and an evaluation of the quality of the clinical controlled studies, there was the attempt to find conclusions about the importance of the dental occlusion for the athletes starting from the low number of existing studies.
Methods: A literature examination was carried out on Medline Pubmed bibliographic database, covering the period from May 1965 to February 2011, using the following Medical Subject Heading: dental occlusion, sport, performance. Studies without statistical analyses, instrumental exams and control group or with excessively low quality were excluded from the review.
Results: Seven articles out of 414 results were selected for the final analysis.
Conclusion: It seems to exist a correlation between dental occlusion and sport, not only owing to an effect on muscular strength but probably also for the intervention of other factors influenced by dental occlusion (like postural control) but it can’t be confirmed because of the contrasting results, the low number and the limited quality level of the scientific studies executed until now.