1 TÜRKİYE PROFESYONEL LİGLERİNDE GÖREV ... - Spor Bilim

Introduction
In Turkey, martial arts have significantly increased in mid 1980’s like in USA and are in the
second place with 73 000 licensed athletes after football. Although there are several studies
reporting the injury rates of the body parts of taekwondo athletes (1-5), the dental trauma
incidence was not investigated comprehensively for this high contact sport. Only one study
reported dental injury incidence of martial arts as 32.1% (6). As a preventive measure,
mouthguards are designed to be worn over teeth and absorb the energy associated with
impacts on mouth; thus minimizing the occurrence and severity of dental and other oral
injuries (7). With the introduction and widespread use of mouthguards, there has been a
reduction in sports related dental injuries (6-9). Ferrari and Medeiros (6) reported awareness
rates of 71.9% for martial arts but use of these protectors is still limited.
There are three types of mouthguards. ‘Stock’ and ‘boil-and bite’ types are known by the
athletes, while type III, custom-made mouthguards are not well known (9).
Oxygen consumption increases with activity and there is an upper limit during exercise
requiring maximal effort. This upper limit is defined as maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max),
which is the maximum rate at which an individual can take up and utilize oxygen while
breathing air at sea level (10). It has traditionally been used as the basic standard of
cardiorespiratory fitness, as it is considered to be the single physiological variable that best
defines the functional capacity of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. However, it is
more accurate to consider it as an indicator of potential for endurance performance (11).
The use of a maximal multi-stage 20-m shuttle run test to predict VO2 max was first proposed
by Lager and Lambert (12). A maximal multistage 20 m shuttle run test was designed to
determine the maximal aerobic power of schoolchildren, healthy adults attending fitness class
and athletes (13). This test is now accepted as a valid method to estimate the maximal oxygen
uptake indirectly (14). With the rapid development of technology, portable, automated and
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