earticle

영어

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of mouthguards athletes who play contact sports use as well as their perceived discomfort of wearing them in order to analyze the relationship with wearing frequency so as acquire basic data for the development of more user-friendly mouthguards. Methods: The participants, who completed a self-report questionnaire, included 70 contact sports athletes, including high school contact (rugby and boxing) sport department affiliated athletes located in the city of Daejeon. Results: Breathing (p<0.01), fitting (p<0.05), ease of wearing (p<0.01), occlusion (p<0.05), and fatigue in muscles (p<0.05) were positively correlated with wearing frequency. Furthermore, the recognition of the mouthguards was not significantly correlated with wearing frequency. Conclusion: To prevent oral and maxillofacial trauma, multi-directional studies are imperative to develop mouthguards, which are comfortable and cost-efficient.