Athletes Play Through Pain-What Does That Mean for Rehabilitation Specialists?

CONTEXT: Pain in sport has been normalized to the point where athletes are expected to ignore pain and remain in the game despite the possible detrimental consequences associated with playing through pain. While rehabilitation specialists may not have an influence on an athlete's competitive nature or the culture of risk they operate in, understanding the consequences of those factors on an athlete's physical well-being is definitely in their area of responsibility. OBJECTIVE: To explore the factors associated with the experiences of subelite athletes who play through pain in gymnastics, rowing, and speed skating. DESIGN: The authors conducted semistructured interviews with subelite athletes, coaches, and rehabilitation specialists. They recruited coach participants through their provincial sport organization. Athletes of the recruited coaches who were recovering from a musculoskeletal injury and training for a major competition were then recruited. They also recruited rehabilitation specialists who were known to treat subelite athletes independently by e-mail. SETTING: An observation session was conducted at the athlete's training facility. Interviews were then conducted either in a room at the university or at a preferred sound-attenuated location suggested by the participant. PARTICIPANTS: The authors studied 5 coaches, 4 subelite athletes, and 3 rehabilitation specialists. INTERVENTIONS: The authors photographed athletes during a practice shortly before an important competition, and we interviewed all the participants after that competition. Our photographs were used during the interview to stimulate discussion. RESULTS: The participant interviews revealed 3 main themes related to playing through pain. They are: Listening to your body, Decision making, and Who decides. CONCLUSION: When subelite athletes, striving to be the best in their sport continue to train with the pain of an injury, performance is affected in the short-term and long-term consequences are also possible. Our study provides some insight into the contrasting forces that athletes balance as they decide to continue or to stop.

Knowledge and attitudes about sports-related dental injuries and mouthguard use in young athletes in four different contact sports-water polo, karate, taekwondo and handball.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The increasing popularity of participating in sports activities among children and adolescents has increased the risk of sports-related orofacial and dental injuries. Therefore, it is important to establish efficient preventive strategies regarding sports-related dental trauma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of sports-related dental injuries in young athletes and to compare the frequency of such injuries between high-risk and medium-risk sports, along with assessing athletes' attitudes and habits regarding mouthguard use. METHODS: A total of 229 young athletes from four different sports (water polo (n = 59), karate (n = 58), taekwondo (n = 57) and handball (n = 55)) participated in this study. A standardized questionnaire about the frequency of orofacial and dental injuries was used. Questions were also asked about athletes' habits related to mouthguard use. RESULTS: Mean age of the participants was 12.9 ± 3.2 years, and the average time of playing experience was 4.8 ± 3.1 years. Orofacial injury had been experienced by 58 athletes (25.3%), while 31 athletes (13.5%) suffered dental injury. Higher rate of dental injuries was observed in water polo (18.6%), karate (17.2%) and handball (21.8%) than in taekwondo (3.5%) (P = .035). Most participants were aware of mouthguards for dental trauma prevention and considered them efficient for preventing dental injuries during sports activities, but only 94 (41%) used them. There was a statistically significant difference in the use of mouthguards between taekwondo (73.7%) and karate (70.7%) players compared to handball (14.5%) and water polo players (5.1%) (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Handball and water polo had similarly high occurrence of dental trauma as karate, a high-risk martial art sport. Therefore, the classification of sports according to the risk of dental trauma should be reconsidered. It would be beneficial to make wearing a mouthguard mandatory in all high-risk sports, as well as in those with medium-risk for dental injuries.