Elite athletes and oral health: knowledge, perception and experience of three top athletes

Elite and professional athletes are performing at the highest echelons of their sport and seeking out the marginal gains to put them ahead of their opponents. Recent studies have identified high levels of oral diseases in these athletes which can also affect their wellbeing, training and performance. It is hard to argue against a more robust and tailored oral health education programme but this needs to be built around the unique challenges faced by elite athletes. In order to increase the understanding of these challenges, this paper presents interviews with three international elite athletes, one from endurance athletics, one from professional rugby and one from Paralympic rowing to increase our understanding of the life of an elite athlete and how this informs planning for oral health management.