Basketball Players Sink Teeth Into Dunks

Attempting a slam dunk can cost a young would-be Michael Jordan some teeth.

The injuries typically happen when kids attempt the dunks on adjustable basketball backboards that are lowered to levels at which the kids’ teeth can get caught in the net, said dentist Jackson Winters of Findlay, Ohio.

“The lower backboards began to take off because of the popularity of dunking a basketball,” Winters said. “Kids want to emulate those moves, and do the things the great athletes were doing.”

That’s OK for players at least old enough to be in high school, Winters said. They have longer arms, so they can dunk and still keep their heads well away from the net, he said. Preteens and young teens have shorter arms and so must get closer.

Winters and some colleagues surveyed dentists after he found children coming to him with injuries from driveway backboards. The researchers published their findings in the Journal of the American Dental Assn.

The survey turned up 33 patients with an average age of 12 years and an average height of 5 feet, 3 inches. Two were injured while simply hanging from the rim; the rest had been trying slam dunks. Most were hurt on lowered backboards, but two stood on objects to reach higher baskets, the report said. “One patient and his friends launched themselves off a picnic table,” it noted.

When a youngster’s teeth are entangled in the net, the forces on the teeth are strong enough to pull them out of the sockets, the report said. If the teeth are in braces, the teeth may remain but be twisted until they point out of the mouth, Winters said.

In most cases, the teeth could be replanted, but the average cost of treatment was $929, and the teeth probably will never have as strong a grip as they had before, the article said. In three cases, the teeth could not be replanted.

Kids who want to slam dunk should wear mouthguards, Winters said. Among the dental patients, use of mouthguards went from none before the accidents to one-third afterward, the report said.

Another option is the use of a vinyl cylinder as a replacement for the net, Winters said. One, marketed as the Dura Slam Net, was invented by a teacher in Hiram, Utah, he said.

Other companies also are involved in net safety. Huffy Sports Co. makes a net that’s held to the rim by clips, said Patrick Ehren, marketing manager. The Quick Clip Net Release System lets the net tear free with about 25 pounds of force. Huffy also makes a fabric net with tiny holes like those in a football jersey, so children can’t get fingers or teeth caught in it.

An industry standard-setting committee is focusing on the adjustable backboard--”the in-the-driveway kind of thing,” said committee member Ray Delaney, director of manufacturing at Gared Inc., St. Louis, which sells basketball equipment for team play.

The committee is aware of the tooth-loss problem but does not have a proposed design standard aimed specifically at preventing it, Delaney said. Parents can prevent tooth loss and other injuries by supervising the young players, he said.

The panel wants to raise the minimum rim height from 6 feet to 7 feet, mostly to keep people from striking their heads on the rims, but this might also prevent some lost teeth, Delaney said.

At least one manufacturer, Recreation Unlimited of Noblesville, Ind., has a rim that can be adjusted down no lower than 7 feet. “The rims used to come down to 6 feet,” said Scott Flowers, operations manager. “Taller people would bump their heads.”

A youth sports coach who likes lower rims nonetheless thinks 6 feet is too low. “You are going to get the child who can jump and get caught on that,” said Glen Walker, president of Florida Youth Basketball, a statewide organization based in Port Orange.

Walker knew of no such injuries, but he considered them possible. The rim should be no lower than 8 feet, he said.

Florida Youth Basketball had used 8 1/2-foot baskets as recently as five years ago, until the board voted to change them, Walker said. Lower rims and smaller basketballs make it easier for the younger kids to shoot, but the board wanted to make the standard the regulation 10 feet, he said.