Oral health screening for sport

Oral health is an essential component of general health and wellbeing, but there are many potential challenges to the oral health of athletes, including nutrition and hydration, exercise-induced immune suppression, lack of awareness, negative health behaviours and lack of prioritisation. Oral diseases should be preventable, and there are simple interventions that have good evidence of efficacy. Screening that allows early recognition of disease is well-established in healthcare as the first step in prevention of disease and promotion of positive health behaviours. This paper aims to provide an overview of the oral health problems that can be screened for in sport.