Search

All sporting activities have an associated risk of orofacial injuries due to falls, collisions with players, devices, and hard surfaces. Many authors have reported about incidence of orofacial injuries during sports activities. Flanders and Bhat concluded that 34% of all injuries in basketball are orofacial injuries, while orofacial injuries account for only 0.07% of all injuries in American football., Aim, Methods and Examinees: The aim of this investigation was to identify the incidence, type and severity of temporomandibular joint injuries, stiffness and pain in oral muscles, and pain during opening and closure of the mouth while playing basketball. The sample consisted of 195 basketball players, 135 professionals and 60 non-professionals. They filled out the questionnaire individually with help of the researchers., Results: The data received by the survey revealed a total of 350 temporomandibular joint injuries and/or pain, oral muscles stiffness and pain during opening and closure of the mouth during basketball career. The incidence of injuries was higher in professional 72.6% (254) than in non-professional players 27.4% (96). Twenty-four professional and 9 non-professional players reported pain or oral muscles stiffness, while 58 professional and 15 non-professional players reported pain during opening and closing the mouth. Only 1 non-professional player and 6 professional players reported injuries of the temporomandibular joint. All basketball players who were injured during their career had more than one injury. During career, professional players reported pain while opening and closing of the mouth more often than non-professional players, on the average 1.3 and 0.9 times, respectively. Pain or oral muscles stiffness during basketball career was reported 0.6 times on the average by non-professional players, as compared to 0.5 times by professional players. Non-professional players reported 5.2% injuries of temporomandibular joints during their career, while professional players only 3.2%. With regard to positions in the team, most injuries of temporomandibular joints, stiffness and pain in oral muscles were reported by forwards, on the average 2.33 incidents. Centers were the second most frequently injured group with an average of 1.96 incidents, followed by point guards with 1.74, power forwards with 1.62 and guards with 1.55 incidents., Conclusion: Only 2 basketball players (1%) frequently used a mouthguard and 93.3% of them never even tried to wear a mouthguard. Implementation of mandatory mouthguard usage in sports, such as basketball, would decrease such a large number of sports injuries. Mouthguards would absorb the force of impact and consequently stiffness and pain in oral muscles so that injuries of temporomandibular joints would be reduced or even avoided. Such a low percentage of mouthguard use in basketball players reflects poor awareness and education of both athletes and coaches, as well as an insufficient role of dentists in sports medicine and education.

A skin projection of the orbitale as palpated through soft tissues was designated on the left cheek of 22 subjects. The nasion, orbitale and cephalostat nasion direction medium were plotted on transparent paper after teleroentgenography. Mutually parallel lines were drawn through the points, the line obtained on the construction of the nasion direction medium used as a basic one. Distances between the lines were measured and results statistically processed. Transfer of the model into the articulatory region by means of the orbitale and buccal arch nasion direction appeared not to orientate reliably the model according to reference planes of the head. Our results are consistent with literature data available.

In this study, teleroentgenocephalograms of 34 subjects with at least 20 natural teeth were used. Correlation between the angle formed by linking the PORION-NASION-SPINA NASALIS ANTERIOR (PONANS angle) points and the angle made by Frankfort horizontal and occlusion plane was studied. The coefficient of correlation was 0.1263. It is considered that there is no correlation if the coefficient of correlation is less than 0.5. Thus, there was no correlation in the study sample, which is consistent with the results reported by Karkazis and Polyzois, but in disagreement with those published by Monteith. In our sample, the occlusion plane could not be oriented in the articulatory space or in toothless mouth by means of the method proposed by Monteith.