Athletes are smiles ahead

Bondholders Remarkable Smiles and Derbyshire Institute of Sport (DIS) have teamed up to carry out pioneering research and help the oral health of athletes.

Back in 2015, a study carried out by University College, London (UCL), was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine after 187 professional footballers were examined by dentists. It was found that nearly four in 10 had active tooth decay and eight in ten had gum disease.

Director of Remarkable Smiles, Amit Koshal, met Chloe Maudsley, Managing Director of DIS, at a Marketing Derby event. He heard how DIS wraps world-class support around local athletes to give them the best chance of winning medals at future world championships.

Amit explained: “These athletes get fantastic support with nutrition, strength and conditioning, psychology and physiotherapy – but DIS hadn’t look at issues around oral health.

“High-performance athletes who train hard and eat a well-balanced diet still risk serious health problems if they don’t have healthy teeth and gums.

“Gum disease makes people significantly more likely to develop heart and kidney disease, because the infection can spread from the gums to other parts of the body via the bloodstream. Yet many people think it’s just a minor inconvenience if they spit blood when they clean their teeth.”

Amit has been in touch with professors at UCL about his early findings with the Derbyshire athletes and will be keeping them informed as his work continues. He said: “UCL were very interested that we had access to so many high-performing athletes from a range of disciplines and we will now be doing some trailblazing research on sports performance and oral health.”

Delighted to have Remarkable Smiles on board, Chloe added: “No-one, as far as we know, has done any serious research on how oral health may impact on athletic performance. It will be wonderful if our collaboration not only helps our athletes to be healthier and happier throughout their lives but produces data that can help future generations of sportspeople.

“We provide support services to our athletes free of charge because they already have to self-fund their trips across the UK and the world to compete. We couldn’t do what we do without the help of our business sponsors and supporters and we are particularly thrilled to have Remarkable Smiles on our team.”