Ocena częstości stosowania ochraniaczy jamy ustnej w różnych stylach walki sportowej

*Piotr Wesołowski², Katarzyna Mańka-Malara¹, Paulina Tokarska¹, Andrzej Wojtowicz²

Summary
Introduction: Mouthguards should be an integral part of all types of contact sports. Martial arts are often treated as a homogeneous group, in spite of differing significantly in terms fighting styles and rules of each competition. In order to plan the effective prevention of orofacial injuries one has take into consideration competitors motivation to use guards.
Aim: To define the frequency of mouthguards usage among martial arts fighters, motivations for the application of guards, and to assess whether combat sports competitors can be treated as homogenous group.
Material and methods: Questionnaire survey among 400 male and female fighters in kyokushin karate, shotokan karate, muaythai, taekwondo, boxing, kickboxing and judo.
Results: Most commonly chosen type of mouthguard was the “boil and bite” – 49% of the respondents, 41% did not use any mouth protector. Frequency of use of mouthguards does not depend on the type of discipline. 81% of the respondents admit that the opponent sometimes performs an illegal technique during the fight. If mouthguard usage is not obligatory 78% of interviewees do not use it at all. 30% of the competitiors who assess the risk of sustaining an injury as high do not use mouthguards.
Conclusions: Competitors do not have enough knowledge about the proper procedures in case of an injury. The level of awareness affects the injury frequency – perhaps campaigns aimed at increasing the awareness and the trauma prevention, as well as promoting the use of mouthguards could reduce the number of injuries.

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