What a Wisdom Tooth Taught AC Milan About Oral Health and Performance

A hidden infection in a single tooth kept one of the world's best midfielders out of training for more than 18 months. When Clarence Seedorf arrived at AC Milan in 2002, he brought with him a chronic groin pain that no examination could explain. Specialists looked everywhere except the one place that held the answer: his mouth. It was a wisdom tooth with a hidden infectious focus. The bacteria had entered his bloodstream and spread to the muscles he used every day. The tooth was extracted. The pain that had resisted 18 months of treatment disappeared within days. It was not physiotherapy that solved it. It was a dental extraction.

At By The Lake Dental, our dentists and dental team see this connection between oral health and overall physical wellbeing every day in our dental offices in Ajax and Scarborough. The mouth is rarely the first place anyone looks when something goes wrong with the body. It should be.

The science behind the connection

Seedorf's case is striking precisely because it is not unique. A study by Needleman et al., published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine following the London 2012 Olympic Games, followed 302 elite athletes and found that 18% reported dental pain and oral discomfort negatively affecting their training and performance. Research published in BDJ Open on oral health problems at the 2019 Pan American Games confirmed that oral health conditions are considerably more prevalent among elite athletes than in the general population, and that their impact on physical output is measurable and significant.

The mechanism is well documented. Oral infections release inflammatory substances into the bloodstream, disrupting muscle recovery and increasing injury risk. Bacteria from a dental focus can spread through the body, reaching the muscles that an athlete trains and depends on every day. A point of care article in the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association notes the important and evolving role of the team dentist in both elite and amateur sports, and in 2015 Sports Dentistry was formally recognised as a speciality.

A Brazilian pioneer at the 1958 World Cup

Poor oral health can reduce athletic performance, and a Brazilian dentist understood this intuitively more than six decades before modern science confirmed it.

In 1958, just days before the FIFA World Cup in Sweden, a dentist named Mário Trigo was given a mission that would quietly shape the history of sports medicine: assess the oral health of all 33 players and staff members of the Brazilian national football team.

At the time, the Brazilian delegation had no dental infrastructure. Trigo, a passionate football enthusiast who had played the sport at the amateur level, enlisted 15 dentistry students from his university to help examine every player and staff member, one by one, with meticulous care.

What they discovered was alarming: widespread tooth decay, infections, and hidden oral diseases throughout the squad. Based on his clinical experience, Trigo had observed that athletes with dental infections consistently took longer to recover from physical injuries. By the time the examinations were complete, he had overseen the extraction of 118 teeth from the 33 players and staff members (an average of 3.5 teeth per person) to eliminate active sources of infection before the tournament began.

Brazil went on to win the 1958 World Cup. Trigo remained with the national team through its victorious campaigns in 1962 and 1970, becoming such a respected figure that the players insisted he be included in commemorative championship sticker albums alongside the team.

What this means for you

The lessons from these cases are not reserved for elite athletes. Whether you train competitively, exercise regularly or simply want to feel and function at your best, oral health is part of the picture. Hidden infections, untreated decay and gum disease place a quiet but consistent burden on the body, one that most people never connect to how they feel day to day.

Our dentists and dental team at By The Lake Dental take a preventive approach to your dental care, addressing issues early before they develop into sources of systemic stress. Regular dental check-ups and hygiene visits every four to six months are the foundation. The Oral Health Foundation confirms that poor oral health has a measurable impact on the performance of professional athletes, and our dental clinic is here to make sure that impact never applies to you.

Your health is worth protecting at every level. Contact By The Lake Dental, your favourite dental office in Ajax and Scarborough, and book your appointment today.

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By The Lake Dental is your family’s one-stop dental office for everything your smile needs, including children’s dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, tooth extractions, oral hygiene, dental implants, orthodontics and Invisalign, mouthguards, root canal therapy, tooth restoration, temporomandibular disorder treatment, and more!