According to a new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital an estimated 132,000 high school baseball-related injuries occurred with an injury rate of more than one per 1,000 athletic exposures.
The study cited, being hit by a batted ball is one of the more common mechanisms of baseball-related injuries and one of the most serious. More than half of the injuries that occurred as a result of being hit by a batted ball were to the head/face and teeth and 40 percent resulted in fractures, lacerations or concussions. When compared to other injuries, injured players struck by a batted ball were more than twice as likely to require surgery. The study also found pitchers are not the only players at risk. Half of the injuries attributed to being hit by a batted ball were sustained during fielding.
“Based on our findings regarding the risk of sustaining an injury when hit by a batted ball, we strongly recommend helmets with face shields or at least mouth guards and eye protection be used by all pitchers, infielders and batters at the high school level,” explained the study’s lead author Christy Collins, MA, research associate in CIRP of Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
“The use of face guards among batters is becoming more accepted in youth baseball,” added study co-author Dawn Comstock, PhD, principal investigator in CIRP of Nationwide Children’s and faculty member of The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “However, the use of proven protective equipment such as face shields, mouth guards and eye protection is not yet widely accepted by players and coaches at the high school level. Research shows that wearing such protective equipment reduces the risk of sports-related facial and dental injuries.”
If your child participates in an organized sport make sure their smile is protected – make sure they wear a mouthguard.
This important information was brought to you by Ralph Reilly, to learn more about preventing dental injury contact the team at Advanced Dentistry www.advanceddentistry.net or 732.356.9120.
June 19, 2008 at 5:58 pm
You never know what is going to cause an injury. Recently my stepson was participating in a little league baseball game, he wears a mouthguard when he is batting and running bases, he was chasing a fly ball and ran into the fence. The ball didn’t hit him, in fact it went over the fence, unfortunately he did not. He broke his front right tooth. He looked more like a hockey player than a baseball player, but he didn’t want to leave the game, he insisted that it didn’t hurt that bad. Well, we had to have the tooth replaced, Dr. Bobbi Stanley put a new tooth in there that is an exact replica of the missing one, and she assures us that it will not come out. She also added some porcelain veneer to a neighboring tooth that she was afraid might have been damaged in the accident, in case its integrity was compromised. It seems that we should just wear a mouthguard everywhere to prevent smile damage.
July 23, 2008 at 9:39 pm
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