Sanitization of sports mouthguards

Introduction: Mouthguards are removable intra-oral devices that, if used correctly, make the protection of the teeth and soft tissues such as gums, lips and cheeks from the impact during the sport activity. Objective: To know about the habits and attitudes towards the hygiene and use of mouthguards for athletes and evaluate the ability of a new product in spray form to decontaminate mouthguards. Material and methods: An interview by means of a questionnaire was conducted with 22 men, young adults, rugby players, in order to know their habits and attitudes about the use and cleaning of mouthguards. After this step, microbiological testing was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a test product in the decontamination of mouthguards. Results: The sample consists of young adults, well-educated, but who had little information about cleaning of mouthguards. Only one participant executed the decontamination adequately. By microbiological assessing the test product was effective in decontaminating the samples of mouthguards. Conclusion: The risk of saliva contamination of mouthguards, the hygiene care and storage and the need for disinfection of these devices should be better disseminated among professionals and especially among athletes. The test product was effective in decontaminating salivary mouthguards.

Effect of teeth clenching on muscle strength during repeated isokinetic knee extensions / 体力科学

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of teeth clenching on isokinetic knee extension force during repeated voluntary contractions. We assessed isokinetic muscle strength in association with teeth clenching during 100 consecutive knee extensions at 60 degrees per second (deg/s) using a Cybex 6000 isokinetic dynamometer. In this study, 8 healthy male volunteers (28.4 ± 3.89 years) were asked to perform isokinetic contractions in an extended cycle of five contractions without teeth clenching followed by five contractions with the teeth clenching. The peak torque per body weight was statistically analyzed. In our results, the peak torque per body weight with teeth clenching were significantly greater than those without teeth clenching in the first 70 cycles; however, no significant differences were shown at 71-100 cycles. There was a significant negative correlation between the number of knee extensions and the difference in peak torque per body weight derived from with and without teeth clenching (r=-0.475, p<0.0001) . Our findings reveal that the effect of teeth clenching on the isokinetic muscle strength of knee extension is dependent on muscular fatigue, and that the improving effect of teeth clenching on isokinetic muscle strength declines with increasing muscular fatigue.