Effect of mandibular orthopedic repositioning appliance on kinematic pattern in golf swing

Experience has shown that repositioning the mandible may have an influence on the athletic performance. Many athletes with or without occlusal problems are now using mandibular orthopedic repositioning appliance (MORA) supposedly to optimize their performance. In golf, the players do not have any direct opponent and they have different clubs to reach various distances. Therefore, an automatic swing permits the uncertainty of the movement to be restricted. The aim of this study was to analyze if the use of the MORA could have an effect on the stability of the kinematic pattern in golf swing, connected to the capacity of the golfers to reproduce their swing from kinematic perspective. The measures of kinematic data have been established with the optoelectronic system VICON (Oxford's Metrix, Oxford, UK) with five cameras operating at 50 frames per second. Measurements of the speed of the ball at impact were obtained with a radar (Bridgestone HD.01, Science eye, USA). Six professional (current handicap ranging from 0 to 4) right-handed golfers participated in the study. Six MORA were made and adjusted to fit each player. Each golfer performed five swings without mouthpiece and five with the MORA. The results of this study show that there was no difference related to the MORA on kinematic pattern of the golf swing. Moreover, there were significant differences concerning the ball speed at the impact, among the two test conditions, with or without the appliance (p < 0.03). The percentage of variability indicates that the speed with MORA was more regular than the speed without the appliance.