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Research shows 49% of elite athletes experience cavities despite peak physical fitness, highlighting the need for a shift toward earlier, biologically driven care
ZUG, Switzerland, July 20, 2026 – As the world’s top football players leave the global stage in North America, vVARDIS, the company behind the drill-free early cavity treatment, Curodont®, is drawing attention to a surprising oral health challenge affecting elite athletes.
Despite being among the fittest individuals on earth, nearly half of elite athletes – 49% – have cavities.¹ A recent peer-reviewed article published in Frontiers in Oral Health argues that this paradox reveals the central weaknesses of traditional dentistry’s reactive model.² Tooth decay remains the most common disease in the world, affecting over 2 billion people globally.³
The impact extends far beyond the mouth. Untreated cavities are associated with pain, infection, difficulty eating, sleeping and speaking, reduced quality of life, and cause broader health consequences. Research has also shown untreated cavities are associated with a 26% increased risk of all-cause mortality and a 48% increased risk of heart disease mortality.⁴
The Frontiers in Oral Health article also suggests that sports dental medicine may be uniquely positioned to demonstrate the benefits of earlier, less invasive, and more sustainable approaches to oral healthcare.2 Because athlete health and performance are closely monitored, the impact of better oral health can often be observed more clearly and rapidly than in the general population.
These themes were also discussed at the 4th Global Oral Health & Climate Action Conference, held alongside COP30 in Belém do Pará, Brazil, where leaders from health, science, and policy explored how oral healthcare can become more sustainable, biologically driven, and aligned with broader public health and environmental goals.
See recordings from the 4th Global Oral Health & Climate Action Conference:
Elite Athletes: A Model for the Future of Oral Care
Elite athletes face unique oral health challenges, including frequent consumption of sports drinks and carbohydrates, dehydration, reduced salivary flow, intensive training schedules, and stress. Research also suggests that poor oral health may negatively affect wellbeing and athletic performance.1 According to the Frontiers in Oral Health perspective, this combination of risk, urgency, and measurability makes sports dentistry a natural pioneer for the broader transition toward more proactive and sustainable oral healthcare.2
Closing the Treatment Gap
For nearly 80 years, fluoride has played an important role in prevention. Yet despite major advances, tooth decay remains the most common disease in the world.3 Once decay progresses beyond what prevention can address, patients have traditionally been left with limited options until restorative intervention becomes necessary. This challenge has created a treatment gap for early-stage cavities. At the same time, restorative treatment can initiate a lifelong cycle of replacement restorations. One filling may eventually lead to a larger filling, then a crown, root canal treatment, and ultimately tooth loss, a progression many dentists refer to as the restorative cycle.
Biomimetic Peptide Technology and Earlier Intervention
At the Global Oral Health & Climate Action Conference, biomimetic peptide technologies were highlighted as examples of innovations that support earlier intervention and more sustainable approaches to oral care, including through the ‘Minimum Intervention Oral Care and Sustainability Nexus’ session.
vVARDIS’ flagship Curodont® products are based on proprietary, peptide-containing formulations that complement the patient’s natural biology to help it stop the progression of early-stage cavities, repair damaged enamel and preserve natural tooth structure, establishing a new drill-free restorative category. This offers a non-invasive approach to addressing early-stage cavities at the point when prevention is no longer sufficient, without the need for injections and invasive procedures.
By enabling clinicians to intervene before restorative treatment becomes necessary, such approaches support the preservation of the natural tooth structure. Together with digital diagnostics, AI-supported monitoring, and early lesion detection, these innovations are helping drive a broader shift toward earlier disease management.
A Turning Point for Dentistry
Dr. Haley Abivardi, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of vVARDIS, said: “For decades, dentistry has faced a treatment gap. Once a cavity develops, patients have often been left with two options: watch and wait or drill and fill. We believe patients deserve a solution that can address disease earlier, before invasive treatment becomes necessary.”
Dr. Goly Abivardi, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of vVARDIS, added: “It is remarkable that tooth decay remains the most common disease in the world despite decades of prevention efforts and the introduction of fluoride nearly 80 years ago. Once a tooth is drilled, it often enters a lifelong restorative cycle that can ultimately lead to tooth loss. We believe dentistry is now undergoing the same transformation medicine embraced decades ago – moving from repairing damage to treating disease earlier and preserving healthy tissue whenever possible. Sports dentistry has a solid incentive to change because athletes can’t afford weeks of recovery from invasive treatment – biomimetic innovation is already helping make that a reality.”
About Curodont®
Curodont® is vVARDIS’ flagship product portfolio based on its proprietary biomimetic peptide technology. Developed through more than 25 years of research, Curodont® is designed for the non-invasive treatment of early cavities. The platform is supported by more than 250 scientific publications, including meta-analyses, peer-reviewed clinical studies and long-term real-world evidence studies, with a documented success rate above 90% in treating early cavities.
For Media Inquiries:
Erin Mola
Erin.Mola@FGSGlobal.com
(917) 432-8604
1. Gallagher J, et al. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology. 2018.
2. Avgerinos S, et al. Frontiers in Oral Health. 2025.
3. World Health Organization. Global Oral Health Status Report. 2022.
4. Liu J et al. Int J Epidemiol. 2022;51:1291-1303.