Beyond treating superstars

Their patients could be little league sluggers or college gridiron stars, Olympic athletes or professional basketball players.

But the 164 dental professionals who attended the 2009 Academy for Sports Dentistry Annual Symposium in Chicago May 7-9 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago found common ground when discussing topics like dental trauma treatment, on-field injury management, mouthguards and more.

Said ASD President Jeffrey P. Hoy of Torrance, Calif., “the word is getting out about us and our membership is growing. ASD offers some very important benefits of membership, including our journal [Journal of Dental Traumatology] and great opportunities for networking, camaraderie and continuing education at our annual symposium.”

In fact, at this year’s symposium, the group welcomed 31 new members and the organization has more than 500 members from around the globe.

Dr. Hoy, team dentist for the Los Angeles Lakers, has treated basketball superstars like Shaquille O’Neal and James Worthy. His most memorable sports dentistry moment, he said, involved Lakers’ guard Kobe Bryant.

In a game in November 2002, Bryant collided with forward Antawn Jamison at the end of regulation time as the Lakers and the Golden State Warriors were tied at 85. Bryant sustained a laterally luxated central incisor and Dr. Hoy had two minutes to realign the tooth so Bryant could play in overtime.

“I was working in front of the players from both benches, in front of cameras,” he said. “We were on the Jumbotron.”

Thanks to his quick work, Bryant hit the court in overtime, scored four more points, and the Lakers won 96-89.

“ASD offers its members specialized training and support they can’t get anywhere else,” he added. “By attending the annual symposia, members are participating in a life-long learning process. It has certainly helped me have the skills and confidence I feel necessary to treat high-level athletes.”

But more and more members, said ASD membership chair Dr. Jeffrey Lloyd, are private practice dentists who are seeing more sports field injuries filter into their practices.

“They are getting more and more questions from patients, like ‘I have a tooth in my hand鈥hat do I do with it?’ and want to be able to make a difference at the community level.”

Dr. David P. Kumamoto, a past ASD president and current president of the Chicago Dental Society, began his involvement in sports dentistry as the University of Illinois at Chicago hockey team dentist. Though the school no longer has a hockey team, Dr. Kumamoto still serves UIC athletic teams. He also participated in program in the 1990s that utilized a grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health, which enabled dentists to reach young athletes in several Chicago Public Schools with mouthguard education and fabrication.

Dr. Kumamoto hopes, as both a dentist who loves sports dentistry and as a Chicagoan, that the Windy City will win the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“Dentistry as a profession will play a small but important part in the overall Games,” he wrote in an editorial in the March-April 2009 issue of the CDS Review. “Chicago is a sports city and is deserving of hosting the Olympic Games鈥nd individual dentists will have the opportunity to volunteer or just enjoy the Olympics first-hand.”

This year’s symposium, themed Modern Concepts for Dental Trauma, featured a lineup of speakers presenting the latest treatment, prevention and research news in the field.

Next year’s symposium is planned for June 24-26, 2010, at the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City in Arlington, Va.

For more information on ASD or the upcoming symposium, visit the Web site: www.sportsdentistry-asd.org.