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The present study investigated oral injuries among the weight groups of Japanese amateur high-school boxers. 129 boxers in 14 high-school boxing teams answered a series of questionnaires about their own mouthguards and oral injuries. For amateur high-school boxers in Japan there are 3 weight groups : light-weight group (LWG : mosquito, light fly, fly, bantam, feather), middle-weight group (MWG : light, light welter, welter, middle), and heavyweight group (HWG : light heavy, heavy, super heavy). As a result of dividing students into the 3 weight groups, there were 84 in LWG, 36 in MWG, and no boxers in HWG. The results were as follows : 1. In LWG, 31 boxers(29.2%) had suffered oral injuries, and the rates were higher than those of any other body part. 2. In MWG, 10 boxers (27.0%) had suffered oral injuries, and the rates were the highest of all body parts. 3. In LWG, as for oral injuries, 29 (69.1%) suffered lip laceration, 5 (11.9%) tongue laceration, and 4 (9.5%) gingival laceration. 4. In MWG, as for oral injuries, 6 (54.5%)suffered lip laceration and 3 (27.3%) maxillary anterior teeth injuries. 5. 36.4 percent of boxers in MWG had suffered teeth injuries, while 7.1 percent in LWG had suffered teeth injuries. Boxers in MWG suffered significantly more teeth injuries than those in LWG. Therefore, the results suggest that we should produce boxer mouthguards in consideration of the punching strength among the weight groups of boxers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the extent of mouthguard use and oral injuries in amateur high school boxers in Japan. One hundred and twenty-nine boxers in 14 high school boxing teams answered a series of questionnaires concerning their own mouthguards and oral injuries. The results were as follows: 1. Almost all boxers used mouthguards and 82.3% of them wore the mouthguards during matches and training sessions. 2. Regarding the types of mouthguards used, 6(4.4%)used the stock type, 109(87.1%)used the mouth-formed type, and 9(7.4%)used the custom-made type. 3. Forty-seven boxers (30.5%)had suffered oral injuries, and the rate of oral injury incidence was higher than in any other part of the body while boxing. 4. As for oral injuries, 39 (67.2%) suffered lip laceration, 7(12.1%) tongue laceration, and 5 (8.6%) maxillary anterior teeth injuries. 5. The rates of incidence of oral injuries with boxers using custom-made mouthguards and commercially available (stock and mouth-formed type) mouthguards were 27.3% and 30.1%, respectively. 6. No boxers using custom-made mouthguards had suffered teeth injuries, whereas 13.2% of those using commercially available mouthguards had suffered teeth injuries. Information on the risk for oral injuries and education on the effectiveness of custom-made mouthguards for injury prevention are effective tools that can lead to the development of more positive attitudes and increased usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]