A survey of young
Otago rugby players showed most wore mouthguards for games,
but placed less importance on their use for practices.
The research by fourth-year dental student Amy Chatfield was
designed to gather information from parents and players about
mouthguard use.
Of the almost 200 players who responded to the survey, 92.6%
said they always wore a mouthguard for the whole game.
However, at practices the percentage of wearers dropped to
62.6%.
Miss Chatfield said some of the respondents indicated that at
practice there was less contact involved, but accidents were
unpredictable and injuries did occur during practice.
Some rippa rugby parents also saw little point in providing
their child with a mouthguard for a one or two-day
tournament.
"Whether a child is playing rugby for a season, or just for a
one-off game, the danger of an injury is still there."
She pointed out that teeth injuries might never heal
completely and could require costly treatment for the rest of
the injured person's life.
Miss Chatfield, whose research was funded by the Child Injury
Prevention Foundation of New Zealand and the University of
Otago's School of Dentistry, praised those involved with
rugby for the efforts they had made to promote mouthguard
use.
She made reference to earlier research which showed rugby
union dental injury claims had decreased by 43% over eight
years following the introduction of mandatory mouthguard use,
while claims from touch rugby, where use was optional, had
increased.
About 40% of parents in Miss Chatfield's research got their
children's mouthguards through their rugby club.
Many rippa rugby parents advised their rugby club provided
their child with a mouthguard as part of the registration,
something which made the guards likely to be seen as part of
the "core equipment and not an added extra".
This might make it more likely players would wear them, she
said.
It also saved parents the extra trouble of purchasing a
mouthguard elsewhere.
Parents and players were clear about where responsibilities
lay for mouthguard use, with almost all respondents saying it
was the players' responsibility to ensure they wore one.
As one parent put it "it is the child's responsibility to
wear it; parent's responsibility to provide it".
It was encouraging that only a couple of players noted
difficulty using a mouthguard.
Miss Chatfield plans to share the results of her survey with
the rugby union in the hope it may be useful to help it
assess the effectiveness of its injury prevention programme
in this area.
- elspeth.mclean@odt.co.nz
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