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Not all wisdom teeth lead to a predisposition to jaw fracture, and not all jaw fractures involve wisdom teeth. The reasons why jaws break under various forms of acute load are complex, and not simply explained in a sentence or two.
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What is known is that the angle of the jaw, forms a natural notch.
This notch effect is increased with the presence of an impacted wisdom tooth, and which acts (much like a knot in timber) to further weaken the local jaw bone, and make it liable to preferential fracture under relatively light loads.
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Many sports are associated with facial fractures. However it is the football codes (American, Australian, Irish, Union, League & Soccer) that have the highest rates of facial injury; which is paradoxical because it is only the American code that allows for routine use of full facial, head, and dental protection. In the Australian football codes, soft helmets & dental mouth-guards are increasingly accepted on the field, but full facial protection is either impossible because of either the dynamic of the game, or because of cultural unacceptability.
What is increasingly accepted is the passive prevention of facial injury. Rules exist which limit player contact to below the neck, and increasingly there is the enforcement of severe penalties for above neck and facial contact. Patterns of facial fractures also allow for surgical prevention, the most classic intervention (but controversially) being the removal of lower impacted wisdom teeth.
Prophylactic surgery for prevention of certain types of sporting injuries is contentious. Prophylactic wisdom tooth removal has good anecdotal evidence for preventing odontogenic tumours, odontogenic disease, and of mandibular angle fractures; but true scientific supportive literature is sparse.
Mandibular impacted wisdom teeth lead to wedge defects of the angles of the lower jaw, and which predispose to notch-type angle fractures under relative light impacts. It would follow that best practice would be to screen for impacted wisdom teeth before they lead to jaw fracture on the sporting field.
It seems just good sense to get your teeth checked for abscesses, decay, and gum disease, before the rigours of training and a full playing season take control of your timetable. Being perfectly healthy (dentally, mentally and physically) are the basic tenets of sporting fitness.
The overwhelming majority of jaw fractures that occur on the sporting field (in contact sports), involves the region containing the hidden and impacted wisdom tooth.
Many sports physicians, sports dentists, and club trainers recommend for prophylactic screening of wisdom teeth (and for general dental disease) during the off season, and to actively prevent dental and jaw problems arising during the playing season.
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The line seen running through the mandible represents a fracture involving the angle of the mandible, and the disto-angular impacted left lower wisdom tooth. |
Click here for a brochure on Lower Wisdom Teeth and Contact Sports
Click on the following cases to read more on fractured mandibles in sport
Case 1. This 25 year old first grade rugby legaue player suffered an impact to the chin point during Saturday play. This resulted in a right angle fracture of the mandible through the impacted wisdom tooth... Read more
Case 2. This 28 year old male suffered a head high tackle during a local competition Friday night match play. He complained of numbness of the right lower lip and chin, a deranged bite, left facial swelling and general jaw pain... Read more
Click here to return to Jaw Fractures From Impacted Wisdom Teeth
Click here to return to Wisdom Tooth Surgery
Click here to return to Maxillofacial Trauma Surgery
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