THE ORAL HEALTH STATUS OF FILIPINO BOXERS ? A COMMENTARY
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 19 Aug 2008
Los Angeles, CA:- As a dentist, part of the priceless experiences of being involved with Filipino boxers training in the US are the unexpected opportunities to help them when they are in dire need of dental services.
That is exactly what happened last Saturday.
Winchell Campos, Pacquiao?s LA-based media man called our offices stating that Aaron Melgarejo, one of the boxers staying with him at the Palazzo was having a toothache which is disrupting his training. Without further ado, we asked him to bring Melgarejo to our offices to see what we can do to help. Campos came with Melgarejo as well as Dennis Laurente and Abe Concepcion who tagged along just to visit.
Melgarejo had a deep seated cavity on his lower left bicuspid which needed immediate attention. With that we proceeded to do root canal therapy, completing the work within an hour. In the end, he walked out of our offices totally pain-free and with a new custom made gold colored mouthguard to boot.
Melgarejo is scheduled to return to our offices this week to take care of a non-restorable tooth that needs surgical attention. Hopefully with that, his fight next month won?t be affected Melgarejo?s case brought memories about Z Gorres. When Gorres was training for his fight with Fernando Montiel, he was brought to our offices for a new mouthguard.
Routine examination revealed a decayed tooth that needed immediate attention. Gorres? tooth was worse than Melgarejo?s. It had a chronic abscess at the apex of the root which could have gone worse anytime. Fortunately, we were able to fix the problem via root canal therapy and a huge dose of antibiotics. After that, he was fine.
Had we not found the problem, there was a distinct possibility that the abscess could have gone bad at the worse moment and his fight with Montiel cancelled causing exponential problems for the ALA Group and Golden Boy Promotions who were the co-promoters of the fight card.
Melgarejo?s and Gorres? dental problems are not the only ones I saw amongst the boxers that came to my offices for their mouthguards. There are numerous others. And, they all needed attention!
It is for this reason why I wrote this piece.
There is no doubt in my mine that a great majority of Philippine boxing managers are taking good care of their wards from the stand point of training, housing, and nutrition. I heard that many even take care of the medical needs of their boxers.
However, base on what I saw on the numerous boxers that came to my offices, their oral health needs are not sufficiently addressed!
Why?
There could be hundreds of reasons for the poor dental health care, or rather the ?none existing? dental health care of our boxers.
However, what comes to mind is the fact that dentistry always occupies the ?back burner? so to speak, in so far as preparing our boxers to attain their goals is concerned.
People just don?t think that dental care is very important. That is because the do not know, or worst they do not care!
And, until something really bad happens that could cause a fighter to lose, or worse, a huge fight be cancelled because of dental problems, I guess the situation will remain the same.
But does it really have to?
I challenge boxing managers to ensure that such does not happen. Don?t wait for me to tell you ?I told you so?.
In addition, I challenge the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) to improve the ?dental part? of the pre-fight complete medical examination.
Most importantly, I ask GAB to bite the bullet and not issue a boxing license to any boxer with poor dental condition. A tall order, but definitely doable. All that is needed is the resolve to do it.
On a few occasions I have witnessed GAB personnel do ?pre-fight examinations?. They weigh the boxers, took their blood pressure, used the stethoscope to listen to their hearts and lungs, check their eyes and a few cases look at the medical documents prepared by an outside physician. Not once did I see them take a detailed close look their teeth to see if there are dental problems that may jeopardize the fight.
I can understand why the GAB people do not do comprehensive oral exams. They are not dentists! And, as far as I know (I hope I am wrong) there is no dentist on staff at GAB offices!
That should change!
If GAB can not fund a position for an in-house dentist, GAB should require boxers coming in for pre-fight medical exams to provide certified documents from licensed dentists indicating that they are free from oral diseases that can potentially affect the health of the boxers and negatively impact his fight. No unattended deep seated cavities, abscesses, gross periodontal conditions, etc, etc.
I ask my good friends at the GAB:- Would that be too hard to do?
As far as managers are concerned, it does not really cost an arm and a leg to get boxers to a dentist and have their dental problems cleared months before they fight.. And, the sooner that is done, the better and the cheaper it will be.
Let us not wait until it is too late. We do not want to have another Pancho Villa amongst our boxers.
After all, taking care of the total health care (good dentistry included) of these gladiators is part and parcel of the responsibilities of being a ?boxing manager? and as far as GAB is concerned, regulators of the boxing profession.
Let us strengthen our resolve to make it better for our boxers. They are giving so much of themselves to bring glory for our country. The least they deserved is proper dental care.
No more and no less!
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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