Glasgow 2014
experience A fantastic
QUB graduate John Haughey was part of the dental team at this summer’s XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow
T
he 20ı4 Commonwealth Games was held in Glasgow and I was fortunate to be part of the dental team who provided dental support to
the participating athletes. Like the Olympics, the organising
committee of the Commonwealth Games has a responsibility to provide dental support to athletes during the games. At Glasgow 20ı4, this comprised of a dental clinic in the Athletes’ Village and field of play dentists within the athlete medical teams at the rugby, hockey and boxing competition venues. The dental clinic provided dental support to the athletes during their stay in the Athletes’ Village. The dental clinic was focused on providing emergency treat- ment, treating any dental conditions that could affect performance and provision of custom-fitted mouthguards. The field of play dentists were focused on treating any dental scenarios that arose during competition. As part of the three-strong field of play
dental team responsible for the boxing competition venue, I was based at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) complex which hosted seven sports; judo, wrestling, boxing, netball, gymnastics, weightlifting and powerlifting. A shift rotation was in place so there was always one dentist at the SECC complex. A thorough training programme, which included orientation training, role-specific training and venue-specific training had taken place in the lead up to the Games. Regular communication from Scotland’s deputy chief dental officer Dr Tom Ferris and boxing medical lead Michelle Angus in the weeks before competition provided adequate preparation before the first shift. Each shift started with a briefing from the
Mick Conlan’s semi-final head cut Fig 1
Mick Conlan and Dr Kamran Ahmed Fig 2
Oral laceration suffered by boxer Fig 3
boxing athlete medical team lead for that shift and a practical rehearsal of possible scenarios that could be encountered during that day’s competition. One of the major talking points from the
boxing competition at Glasgow 20ı4 was the decision to remove head guards in the male competition. With comparison to the Olympics where head guards were worn, there was a massive amount of cuts, mainly from head clashes. This lead to a very active athlete medical room. For example, the second day of boxing competition alone saw ı7 boxers getting cuts. Some of the better funded teams, such
as Scotland, England and Canada, had their own medical staff within their boxing team and they treated any of their boxers who
Mouthguard worn at time of injury Fig 4
were hurt, but most teams relied on the athlete medical team in place. Michael Conlan, a boxer from the
Northern Ireland team, who won a bronze medal for Ireland at London 20ı2 was a regular visitor to the athlete medical team post bout. He was unfortunate to suffer a cut to the top of his head in his first fight (Fig ı) and a major cut to the forehead in his semi-final, which left him in doubt to pass the pre-bout medical for the final the next day. After some great medical work from the medical lead Dr Kamran Ahmed – who I also had the pleasure of working with at the Olympics – which consisted of some deep
Continued » Ireland’s Dental magazine 25
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