Exercising has always been thought of as the best way to help in weight loss and keep you fit, but did you know that it could potentially damage your oral health? Yes, according to a recent study done on athletes, it found that intense training may contribute to dental problems.
The study published in The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports hinted towards the fact that in the past professional athletes could have suffered from a heightened risk of oral issues. Another study published last year in The British Journal of Sports Medicine found that dentists who examined the oral health of professional athletes found that they had significantly poor oral health as compared to non-athletes. They also displayed a high level of tooth decay, gum disease and erosion of the tooth enamel. Other studies, however, found little if any link between consuming sports drinks and developing cavities. In an attempt to understand the reason for this, researchers at the University Hospital Heidelberg in Germany and other institutions recruited 35 competitive triathletes and 35 age- and gender-matched healthy adults who were not athletes.
The researchers found that in comparison to the non-athletes, the athletes showed significantly greater erosion of their tooth enamel. They had more cavities, with the risk increasing as an athlete’s training time grew. Over all, the more hours that an athlete spent working out, the more likely he or she was to have cavities.
What they did not find, however, was any correlation between sports drinks and tooth decay, or when they were at rest.
But what they found was that as the athletes worked out their mouths became drier (regardless of whether they drank water or not) and their saliva composition also changed, becoming more alkaline as their workout continued. The excess alkalinity in saliva is thought to contribute to the development of tartar plaques on teeth and other problems.
In a statement Dr Cornelia Freese, a senior dentist at University Hospital Heidelberg, who led the study said, ‘We had thought sports drinks and nutrition might have the most detrimental influence on dental decay,’ she said, ‘but we saw no direct link’ between them. She also emphasised that it was the change in saliva during exercise that led to this decay.
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