Relationship of muscular strength to jaw posture in sports dentistry.

From the late 1970s until the early 1990s there have been several reports of improved appendage muscle strength and athletic performance. Much of the criticism of using a mouthguard alone or in conjunction with a splint, such as a mandibular orthopedic repositioning appliance (MORA), to enhance athletic performance has been aimed at study designs, controls, periods of time, double blindness and the placebo effect. Although it would appear that designing a study that would please both clinician and researcher would be a difficult task, studies have been performed that do meet the "gold standard"; and the results favor the premise that jaw repositioning can enhance appendage muscular strength and athletic performance. Previous studies performed in the mid-1980s, and to which the scientific community refers to continually, on closer examination are flawed.