Dentally Incorrect

What did March say to all the madness? “What’s all that bracket?!” If you’ve stayed with us after that awful joke, we applaud your resolve. And if you have real resolve, you’ll make it through all 68 teams in this year’s bracket until one comes out on top. But do you know who really comes out on top during the swell of basketball fever? Dentists. Don’t believe us? Basketball has a rate of 11 dental injuries per 100 athletes, which is the highest among all sports. Quite a lot for a “no-contact” sport, eh? Here’s a handful of other sports keeping you in business.

Football
Historically, this one used to take the cake back before mouthguards were commonplace. By some estimates, more than half the players in the 1950s suffered dental injuries. Helmets have come a long way, which helps. Keep in mind that it wasn’t until 1962 that facemasks were worn by every player. These days the most common dental injuries occur when fantasy football fans grind their teeth for 16?weeks. That’s what you get for thinking that kicker was going to be your X factor.

Hockey
To make football players look like a bunch of wusses, hockey players weren’t required to wear helmets until the start of the 1979 season. Mouthguards still aren’t mandatory. The stereotypical image of a hockey player with a gap-toothed smile is a stereotype for a reason, and even today most pros see losing a tooth or two as a rite of passage. Player Duncan Keith had seven teeth missing after taking a puck to the mouth in a 2011 game, which must be some sort of record.

Mixed martial arts
This one is a no-brainer. After Ronda Rousey’s famous defeat, she admitted her teeth were so unstable that it could be three to six months before she could eat an apple. More recently, fighter Solomon Rogers got kicked so hard in the head that viewers of the fight could actually see his tooth fly out of his gaping, unconscious mouth. If you haven’t thought of buying a ringside banner ad before, this could be a golden opportunity to kick ’em while they’re down, so to speak.