Sports Dentistry is a vital element of player safety and health. The Houston Medical Center Dental Group works in Partnership with Rice University to meet the dental needs of all the players on the Rice Football Team. We provide the full range of sports dental services to ensure the maximum possible safety of each player, thereby improving team spirit and furthering the pursuit of excellence and accomplishment.Rice University is located only a few steps from our office.

Consequently, we provide them with all sports dentistry services pertinent to the needs of their athletes. In particular, we make custom, protective mouthguards for football players. However, there are many other components to sports dentistry that we also provide to people associated with Rice Athletics.

One of the most important elements of our sports dentistry program is the effective management of emergency situations.

One story in particular comes to mind in regards to how vital this service is.

One afternoon 8 years ago, we received a contact from the trainer at Rice University. He explained that he would be brining one of the cheerleaders to our office for a dental emergency. This young lady was a “flyer” in their gymnastics routines. During the course of a practice session, she took a hard fall to the ground and knocked out several of her teeth.

In these situations, in order for emergency sports dentistry treatment to have any chance of saving the teeth, we have to see to it that several critical things are done:

• The teeth need to be kept clean and moist. This can be done by the patient holding them in his or her mouth, or it can be done by immersing the teeth in a sanitary container filled with a saline water solution.
• If teeth are exposed to open air out of the mouth for more than 30 minutes, the chances of re-implanting them slip away quickly
• In most cases, immediate root canal procedures have to be performed.
• After this, the teeth must be re-implanted and stabilized.

The cheerleader who came to us had a total of five front teeth knocked out. Some were upper teeth, and some were lower teeth. The trainer had been informed to keep the teeth moist and clean as noted above. We were able to get these back into her mouth before that critical 30 minutes was up.

Over the course of the next year, the management of these teeth was very successful overall. Only one was lost, and it was replaced by a dental implant.

Over the past 8 years later, the remaining four teeth have remained viable and stable. This lady is still a patient of ours since her graduation because of the treatment she received under our sports dentistry relationship with Rice University.

These same services are available to other universities, colleges, and school districts interested in protecting the safety and maximizing the performance of their athletes.

Labels: dental emergency service, emergency sports dentistry, re-implanting teeth, sports dentistry

Labels: custom mouthguards, football mouthguards, rice university football team, sports dentistry