The role of the sports dentist in elite sport.

The role of the sports dentist has evolved particularly over the past 15 years. The traditional role of dealing with dental trauma in the dental surgery environment has now been extended to include working with the sports medicine specialists at sporting events, looking into the prevention or sporting dental trauma, regular screening, looking at nutrition and having an educational role with the athletes and wider sporting family. The risk of dental diseases amongst elite athletes has been shown to be higher than the normal population. Therefore, the sports dentist needs to be able to advise these athletes how to minimize the risks and how to mitigate against routine dentine diseases. The study aims to highlight the changing role of the sports dentist and investigate how these practitioners integrate with the sports medicine teams, at sporting events and during downtime from events.