Ian Needleman will discuss perio and sports performance in next EFP Perio Sessions webinar

The second webinar in the new series of EFP Perio Sessions will take place on Thursday 10 December when Ian Needleman will explore the relationship between oral health and sports performance.

Professor Needleman’s presentation, entitled “Oral health, elite sport, and performance”, will explore research involving Olympic athletes and discuss how oral health affects elite athletes’ performance and what the periodontal community can do to support not only top athletes but also ordinary people who engage in sports activities.

He will explain how research studies show that periodontitis affects one in five elite athletes, how the factor most associated with increased oral diseases in athletes is the frequent intake of sugars, and how interventions aimed at behavioural change have been shown to improve not only athletes’ health but also their performance.

Ian Needleman is professor of periodontology and evidence-informed healthcare at UCL Eastman Dental Institute and honorary consultant in periodontology at University College London Hospitals. He also leads the Centre for Oral Health and Performance (www.ucl.ac.uk/cohp) which has been awarded recognition as part of the UK International Olympic Committee research centre. Prof Needleman was a member of the International Olympic Committee, Scientific Committee for the 2014 Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Monaco. He is a keen endurance athlete.

The webinar, which takes place at 19.00 (CET), will be moderated by EFP secretary general Nicola West.

Access to the webinar requires prior registration and the payment of a fee of €35 (plus VAT). Full details about registration and the calendar of webinars are available in the EFP Virtual section of the federation's website, through which online bookings can be made.

Next up: Guideline, step 1

The following EFP Perio Sessions webinar will take place on 28 January 2021, with the focus on the EFP S3-level clinical practice guideline for the treatment of stage I-III periodontitis.

Former EFP secretary general Iain Chapple, professor of periodontology at the University of Birmingham in the UK, will focus on the first step set out in the guideline: behavioural change and risk-factor control.

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