Why should I have an ASD Certified Team Dentist™ on my medical team?

Three words:  Trust, reliability, and access...Your effectiveness as an athletic trainer depends on building strong relationships with health care providers whose expertise you trust and who will partner with you in caring for your athletes.  Nowhere is this more critical than in treating an injury, where prompt, correct and effective care plus sensitivity to the athlete’s concerns about care and aesthetics are equally important.  The Academy for Sports Dentistry's Certified Team Dentists can initiate programs to reduce the incidence of oral-facial trauma and have the expertise to treat injuries that may occur.  They will impact the dental health of your athletes and become an integral part of your sports medicine team.  What's more, ASD Team Dentists are not just any dentists -- they understand the complexities of practice and game schedules and strive to accommodate athletes' needs, both during and outside regular office hours.

Regardless of the level of athlete you treat, the need for qualified dental care, triage, and consultation can go well beyond the obvious need for treating injuries at competitive events.  For example:

• It’s 7:00 a.m.  One of your college athletes falls during practice and knocks a tooth loose.  He has a class presentation at 10:00 a.m., but his hometown is several hours away.
• You're the athletic trainer at a regional weekend event.  A visiting referee arrives with a serious toothache.  Your own dentist isn't available, and the covering dentist won’t see emergencies who aren’t patients of record.
• One of your athletes loses a custom-made mouthguard.  She needs a new one for a meet tonight, but she's from Europe or even just out of state.
• An opposing player for tomorrow's game just had a tooth knocked out.  Their team dentist reimplanted and splinted it on site, but there was no time for an X-ray before leaving for your town.  The player needs follow-up care once the team arrives.

 What's special about their training?  How can I get in contact?

Certified Team Dentists receive additional training in dental injury prevention and treatment, in addition to being licensed in your state and in good standing with the ASD.  They must complete the ASD Team Dentist Course, which covers situations and problems encountered in various sports; principles of dental injury prevention; fabrication of properly fitted custom mouthguards; identification, diagnosis, and treatment of oral-facial and dental injuries; illicit and performance enhancing drugs; and many other related topics.  They also have a trusted support network of dental specialists with whom they work, such as orthodontists, oral surgeons, and periodontists.  For a complete list of requirements, see “Position Statement” under “About Us.”

To contact an ASD Certified Team Dentist or to get more information, click here and we will contact you within 2-3 business days.