The prevalence of dental injuries in rugby players and their attitude to mouthguards.

Although dental injuries may be considered relatively insignificant when compared to other forms of injury sustained by Rugby players (Weightman and Browne, 1974; Walkden, 1975) they can nevertheless cause considerable discomfort and necessitate the provision of otherwise unnecessary and expensive dental treatment. A certain number of-injuries are inevitable in contact sports, but as has been shown in a study of American footballers the risk of dental injury may be minimised by the wearing of mouthguards. Prior to 1962 dental injuries accounted for more than 25-30% of all injuries in American footballers. Since that time, the mandatory wearing of facemasks and mouthguards has prevented an estimated 100,000 oral injuries annually (Bureau of Dental Health Education Council on Dental Materials and Devices, 1973). The extent to which each of these devices contributed to this reduction in injury is not clear.