Introduction:
The use of mouthguard during contact sports is crucial for preventing orofacial trauma.
Objective:
To conduct a survey regarding the use of mouthguards among martial arts practitioners as well as find what is the perception that these athletes have about its importance and function.
Method:
A descriptive cross-sectional survey of investigative character was conducted with 231 practitioners of three different kinds of martial arts (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai and Tae Kwon Do) in the cities of Nova Friburgo and Macaé, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, through a structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed in the SPSS 16.0 statistical software. The frequency was obtained and the Chi-square Test applied (p<0.05) to establish association among variables of interest.
Results:
The data indicated that 60.6% of the respondents had never received information about orofacial trauma during sports practice and that 46.3% of the athletes have suffered some sort of orofacial injury. Most athletes (93.9%) consider important to use the mouth guard, but this datum is disproportionate to the percentage of users of the device: 78.7% in Muay Thai, 60.9% in Jiu-Jitsu and 47.5% in Tae Kwon Do (p<0.01). Among the mouthguards on the market, the most widely used is the thermoplastic or type II (52.5%) in all forms of wrestling evaluated. The custom mouthguard caused the lowest percentage of interference of performance during sports practice when compared with other protective devices (p<0.07).
Conclusion:
Most athletes recognize the importance of using a mouthguard, although they reported not having received information about orofacial trauma during sports practice; most athletes use thermoplastic mouthguard; it is necessary to disseminate information about the benefits of using custom mouthguard (type III) as well as encourage the use of this particular type by all practitioners of martial arts.
accident prevention; athletic injuries; sports