FRESH

Hacker News

Dental Disease May Undermine Elite Athletic Performance

35 points by wjb3

by wjb3

3 subcomments

I have noticed on multiple occassions that under conditions of extreme exertion (i.e., exceeding my textbook maximum heart rate), I get pain in my mouth, almost like every tooth has an infected cavity. I had always just found it an interesting effect. But, in reading this, I presume that elite athletes are in such states far more often than I, and that whatever the underlying mechanism is that causes the pain might also be deteriorating the dental health. I've never been able to find a plausible explanation of the effect that tracks with my actual circumstances (i.e., as far as my dentist and I can tell, I have excellent dental health, but I am not an elite athlete, just a weekend warrior who sometimes overdoes it).

by mhb

1 subcomments

So there's a study which shows that elite athletes have more dental issues. And the conclusion is a conjecture that this might impact athletic performance but that wasn't studied explicitly? Or am I missing something?

by natpalmer1776

0 subcomment

As someone who struggles heavily with my dental health due to the difficulty of doing basic self-care with a myriad of comorbid mental disorders I experience dental pain anytime I engage in any cario activities that exceed my “normal” baseline by too big of a margin.

by shartshooter

0 subcomment

One of my friends was an elite athlete a couple of decades back(eg. won a national champion in a solo track and field event as well as a gold medal in the world championships)
He’s mentioned before how he’s always had bad teeth. He chalks it up to growing up around bad water, I assumed it was because he eats bagels and other carbohydrates almost exclusively, but maybe this is why!

by mgh2

2 subcomments

Why is it so high among athletes? Lack of consistent income or insurance?
PS: The are no bad questions...

by LowLevelKernel

0 subcomment

Neurotoxins is number 1 cause of poor performance. Dental disease is the quickest path to neurotoxicity

by black_13

0 subcomment