UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry emphasizes need for preseason dental screenings for athletes

Having wisdom teeth out in midseason 'could really be an interruption'

Contact: Steven Lee, (210) 450-3823, [email protected]

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 8, 2024 - As a high school football team dentist back when he was in private practice, Scott Stafford was performing a preseason checkup when he noticed a growth in the palate of a player's mouth.

It turned out that the 17-year-old had a giant-cell granuloma, a very evasive and fast-moving tumor that, left undetected, could have resulted in the player losing his entire upper jaw. This, even though the boy had seen his regular dentist only four months earlier.

Preventive dental screenings are not considered part of preseason physicals for athletic teams, but through partnerships, the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry has made those exams and custom mouth-guard fittings routine for UTSA football and the San Antonio Spurs. Most of the screenings don't turn up tumors, but they do uncover important dental health issues like infections or wisdom teeth that need to be removed. And according to dental health experts, better now than during the season.

"Oftentimes, that dental piece is overlooked," said Stafford, DDS, MBA, associate dean of patient care at the dental school. "Dentistry often gets brought into the conversation only after there's an accident. And it's not something that's seen on the preventive side. So much of dentistry is prevention, and we always want look out for our dental patients to try to find ways to keep them healthy and safe."

Awareness is rising, however. The International Olympic Committee, for example, created its first Oral Health Department ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, providing athletes with specialized dental care and custom mouth guards.

Making an impression

Stafford's team, comprised of dental students and faculty, started its dental screenings of UTSA football players at the beginning of July, primarily to fit them for mouth guards by taking impressions using digital scanning - no more goopy trays to bite into - and then using 3D printing to make the models. But sure enough, the checkups also identified students who needed care, including several players needing their wisdom teeth pulled.

"If they have to have their wisdom teeth removed in the middle of the season, it could really be an interruption," Stafford said. "They can't play a contact sport usually for a month after that because it leaves a void in the bone. And so, from a planning perspective and for a coach to have a successful season with an athlete, that preventive screening on the front side is really important."

With the screenings done more than a month before the start of football season, that's usually enough time for a player to fully recover from major treatment. They'd even be able to go home to see their hometown dentist and return in time for the athletic season. For those unable to do that, UT Health San Antonio's UT Dentistry clinic can see them, for most anything from a cavity to a chipped tooth, or even wisdom-tooth removal.

And during the season, UT Dentistry handles game-time emergencies or traumas. Stafford notes a recent study finding that 5 million teeth are knocked out every year from sports activities.

"We really try to educate the athletes to wear the proper mouth guards, how to better protect their teeth, how to take care of their mouths," he said. "In the event there are injuries, we treat those. But we try to stay on the preventive side."

The screenings also provide the opportunity to train dental students on how to become better care providers. Stafford brought a group of dentistry students along to help with the scans and impressions for the UTSA players.

And they returned about a week later to teach student trainers how to make mouth guards themselves, providing them the models to produce multiple copies to keep in the locker room for replacement during the season, and so they won't need to default to over-the-counter mouth guards that can be ill-fitting.

Around the end of August, the team will repeat dental screenings for the Spurs, to prepare for the start of their season in the fall.

Stafford also is the on-call dentist for the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, which gives him an opportunity to informally talk about another hazard - smokeless tobacco, and cancer. "Not only the bull you're riding, but the things you're putting into your body can be dangerous," he said.

Problems can quickly develop

The case of the high school student with the giant-cell granuloma underscored how quickly a problem can develop before a preseason dental screening, even if the patient has kept up with regular checkups at home.

When Stafford first saw the large area in the palate of the student's mouth, he at first thought he had distorted the impression, as he had taken it in a locker room while sitting on a folding chair rather than in his dental office. To be sure, he set up a time in his office to get a closer look and retake two impressions.

That's when the boy was referred to an oral surgeon for treatment that ended up saving his upper jaw. His parents told Stafford that his dentist had taken X-rays on the visit four months before, and none of the mass was there then.

"It doesn't make me a great dentist," Stafford said. "It just means that the intersection of us meeting and him going through a screening prevented that loss. That's huge."

As students return to school, UT Dentistry emphasizes the importance of regular dental checkups, and the need for preseason screenings and proper dental protective wear for athletes. All of these services, and for all ages, are offered in the clinical practice of the School of Dentistry. Learn more at UTDentistry.org.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) is one of the country's leading health science universities and is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. With missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions, graduate biomedical sciences and public health have graduated more than 43,886 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways "We make lives better®," visit UTHealthSA.org.

The UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry offers 18 degrees and programs in both dentistry and dental hygiene, world-renown faculty educators, a diverse student population, state-of-the-art clinical facilities and a distinguished research enterprise. Departments include comprehensive dentistry, developmental dentistry, endodontics, periodontics, and oral and maxillofacial surgery. Scientists collaborate with clinicians and research teams worldwide, and work across multiple medical and dental disciplines to find new treatments, advancing knowledge of oral health, biomaterials, cancer, pain and more. To learn more, visit https://www.uthscsa.edu/academics/dental.

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