The Hidden Performance Factor Every Football Team Should Take Seriously: Dental Health

As a clinician with a special interest in sports dentistry and someone who works with elite athletes across high-performance environments, I’ve seen firsthand that oral health is often undervalued in sport. Yet the mouth is a central to overall health, wellbeing, and even athletic performance.

In elite football, where tiny margins make the difference between winning and losing, dental health can quietly influence everything from training quality to recovery, pain thresholds, nutrition, and risk of injury.

Ongoing discomfort affects concentration and sleep quality

Dental Health Isn’t Just About Teeth (it affects performance!)

Across elite sport, studies show that dental issues are surprisingly common. Even among professional players, research has found that a significant proportion of athletes suffer from untreated decay, gum disease, and dental erosion.

So, why does this matter for football teams?

• Pain and discomfort: Dental problems can be persistent yet subtle. A player may not report a toothache as an “injury,” but ongoing discomfort affects concentration and sleep quality.

• Nutrition disruption: Pain or sensitivity can alter eating patterns, which is especially impactful when optimising diet and recovery is critical for performance.

• Systemic inflammation: Chronic gum inflammation and infection contributes to elevated systemic inflammation (the same marker performance staff monitor closely when managing training loads and recovery).

Heavy training causes fluid shifts

Elite Athletes Face Unique Oral Health Challenges

Footballers live intense schedules, travel frequently, and fuel performances with specialised nutrition:

Sports drinks, gels, and bars: Regular exposure to carbohydrate and acidic products increases the risk of dental erosion and caries.

Dehydration and reduced saliva: Heavy training causes fluid shifts, and saliva causing one of the mouth’s natural protective systems to decrease, reducing its ability to buffer acids and protect enamel.

Contact and trauma risks: Despite helmets and pads in some sports, footballers are still at risk of dental trauma during contact play, especially if mouth guards aren’t part of the protective routine.

Adding dental health to that ecosystem doesn’t require a radical overhaul

Dental Care Fits Seamlessly Into Performance and Medical Support

Clubs already invest heavily in performance science, nutrition, physio, strength & conditioning, and recovery metrics. Adding dental health to that ecosystem doesn’t require a radical overhaul but simply integrates another metric that matters.

Here’s how football teams can make it work:

• Incorporate dental screening into preseason health assessments: Just like musculoskeletal or cardiovascular checks, oral evaluations pick up issues early and provide a baseline for monitoring.

• Educate players on oral impacts of sport nutrition: Empowering players with practical routines that protect teeth (e.g., timing of carbohydrate intake vs. brushing) makes oral health part of training behaviour, not a separate afterthought.

• Use dental professionals as part of the multidisciplinary team: Collaboration between dentists and performance staff ensures oral insights contribute to recovery plans, inflammation control, and overall athlete wellbeing.

Dr Anni Seaborne is Head of General Dentistry at Bupa Dental Care. She specialises in sports dentistry and works with elite athletes and teams, emphasising the critical link between oral health and overall physical performance.