U.S. World Cup team's official dentist has it covered

Soccer is a game played with the feet, but it's brutal on the mouth.

Ed Howard knows this well. As a general dentist in Cary, N.C., he has had to perform root canals and re-implant teeth while repairing local youth players' mouth injuries for years.

This week, the world will see his handiwork, but on a more talented group of chompers.

Howard is the United States World Cup team's official dentist.

His task: Look upon the wreckage inside the mouths of this country's best soccer players -- the remnants of elbows, cleats, heads and balls to the face -- to ensure nothing hinders their ability to perform in the world's most closely watched sporting event, which kicked off Friday.

According to a study by the National Institute of Dental Research, soccer players are three times more likely to suffer mouth injuries than football players.

If untreated, dental problems can hinder eating and sleeping -- important things for world-class athletes.

Howard -- who got the gig in 2006, when the U.S. team trained in Cary before the last World Cup -- downplays his role.

"I'm a small cog in the team-doctors wheel," he says, citing the other doctors who cater to different athletic needs.

"We all partake in the screening and evaluation. I serve to give the players clearance so there won't be any dental problems that hinder their performance or preclude them from playing altogether."

Howard, along with two other team dental members, Mike Mussina and Emil Canal, fit each player for mouth guards.

"Whether they wear it or not ... it's not mandatory in World Cup soccer -- a lot of them do, and we strongly recommend it," Howard said.

Howard played football at Hofstra University in New York.

"When I was growing up, I didn't know anybody who played soccer," Howard said. "It was football and baseball around the clock. A lot of Americans would like to see more scoring and more spectacular plays.

"But the more I watch the game, the more I appreciate the strategy and the skill it takes to excel at it."

Howard was a fill-in at first, having been recommended for the job by Cary's John Wisnieski after he was unable to serve due to a back injury.

In 2006, players were checked into Howard's Cary location. The team was training here at the time.

But this year, the team trained in New Jersey before heading to South Africa. So Howard had to go to them.

Outside of a few team shirts, Howard was not compensated for traveling to treat the players. If he wanted to still be the team's dentist, he would have to foot the bill.

"For a lot of us, it's a privilege to serve our country and to serve our nation's best soccer players," Howard said. "It really is a labor of love, and you couldn't ask to help a better bunch of guys.

Federal health-care privacy laws prevent Howard from divulging which player was in the worst shape dentally. But he said he was able to catch some things before they got too serious.

"We had a couple players who needed some dental extractions," Howard said. "And a couple players had some decay that we had to treat before we cleared them."

While the scars from previous mouth injuries were evident, none of the players were treated for an injury sustained while playing.

"There was some history of previous soccer injuries," he said.

"Most of the guys made the screening scot-free. Others of them had some more urgent dental needs. ... None were soccer-trauma-related injuries."

The U.S. team played its first game of this year's tournament on Saturday, playing England to a tie.

Howard said he will be watching the rest of the games and thinks the team can go as far as it did in 2006, when it got to the final eight.

"They have the talent this year where, if they can get a couple of breaks, they can go very far," he said.

If the team surpasses Howard's expectations, there will be plenty of pearly white smiles across the country.

(mike.blake(at)nando.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

Must credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.