Oral prosthodontic rehabilitation for traumatic sports injuries.

Sports injuries to the mouth and oral cavity may be treated with a variety of prosthetic treatment methods. These may include a temporary removable appliance, especially when adjacent teeth are unrestored and free of caries. Other traditional forms of prosthetic rehabilitation can range from conventional clasped removable partial dentures to traditional fixed prosthesis. The use of clip bar overdentures has demonstrated their clinical acceptability, especially for athletes involved in contact sports. The optimal treatment for patients suffering tooth loss, however, is the use of the osseointegrated implant. This concept, developed and refined by P.I. Branemark, permits successful replacement of single as well as multiple lost teeth. Criteria for patient selection must be evaluated carefully, especially for immediate fixture placement in sockets of avulsed teeth. Professional athletes in high-impact contact sports should receive a resilient prosthesis and protective appliance to use during the sport season, followed by a screw-retained nonremovable prosthesis to be used in the off season. Considering all forms of prosthodontic treatment available to patients with missing teeth, the use of osseointegrated implants currently appears to be the most biologically conservative approach. Retrospective studies document the effectiveness of the treatment of partially edentulous jaws, results similar or better than those reported for fully edentulous patients indicate the effectiveness of the Branemark method of osseointegration.