The Park Practice Dental Clinic Joins Team Scotland

The Park Practice Dental Clinic Joins Team Scotland

Principal dentist, Mike Blackie, launched the association at Scotland’s Commonwealth Youth Games Team Camp in June, providing an informative briefing for the young athletes about the important part dental health plays in their overall health and wellbeing and how it is an essential part of their preparations ahead of international travel to competition.

This will be followed by engagement with athletes selected for Gold Coast 2018, to ensure they are in peak dental health and that those in contact sports have the best possible dental protection. 

Delighted to be working with Team Scotland, Mike Blackie said: “The opportunity to work with Team Scotland combines my dual passions of dental health and sport in an exciting way. I am looking forward to developing the partnership over the next few years and seeing how I can support Scotland’s Commonwealth Games athletes to optimise their dental health.”

A former rugby player with GHK and Glasgow Hawks, Mike Blackie started The Park Practice Dental Clinic in 1999. The practice has a holistic approach to its patients and has always had a high proportion of patients with sporting backgrounds. Over the years the team at The Park Practice has treated various trauma injuries in professional rugby players and have passionately encouraged rugby and hockey players, especially, to wear correctly fitted sports mouth guards.

Mike also has a good understanding of the needs of teams participating in multi-sport Games, having worked as part of the medical team for the London 2012 Olympic Games supporting combat sports and was also involved at Glasgow 2014 with Rugby Sevens.

Through his work Mike has developed a passionate interest in the oral health impact on performance in professional sport and as a result has worked with two of Scotland’s Premiership Football Clubs.

Mike added: “My role has developed to include oral health assessments, education on the potential impact of sugar levels on performance and increasing the understanding of the impact of trauma injuries. Whilst we are still some way off from persuading all athletes in contact or combat sports to wear proper dentally fitted sports mouth guards, thankfully awareness of the benefits is increasing.

“More sporting bodies are realising the importance of looking after the ‘whole’ athlete to improve chances of success and I feel that this link up with Team Scotland will be one of the extra percentage points the athletes need to fulfil their performance potential.”

Jon Doig OBE, Chief Executive of Commonwealth Games Scotland said: “We are delighted to have The Park Practice on board as our dental health supporter.  Many aspects combine to deliver a top performance and dental health is an important component, ensuring athletes get to the start line in the best possible shape.  We are already seeing the impact of the messaging from The Park Practice on our Youth Games athletes and we look forward to a long association with Mike and his team.”

To find out more about our Sports Dentistry please visit our Sports Dentistry page

The Park Practice’s agreement with Team Scotland was brokered and contracted by the rights marketing team at The Sports Consultancy.  The Sports Consultancy is representing Team Scotland to secure commercial partners and related legal services in the build up to the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia and beyond.