{"id":574537,"date":"2026-04-09T20:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574537\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:22:08","slug":"jack-hughes-golden-goal-is-a-reminder-of-how-important-hockey-dentists-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574537\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Hughes’ golden goal is a reminder of how important hockey dentists are"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Schepis was at home with his kids in New Jersey watching the gold medal men\u2019s hockey game<\/a> at the Olympics<\/a> when he saw some of his handiwork get scattered all over the ice late in the third period of a thriller. <\/p>\n

Jack Hughes, the 24-year-old forward for Team USA, had just taken a stick to the mouth from Canada\u2019s Sam Bennett and, as he explained later, saw at least one full tooth and shards of others<\/a> laying on the ice.<\/p>\n

Schepis knew those teeth, too. In fact, as the New Jersey Devils team dentist, he had repaired those very same chompers before after Hughes took a high stick in the playoffs a few years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe did the root canals, fixed it up,\u201d Schepis recalled. \u201cThose were his teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Olympic hero Jack Hughes has new chiclets as NHL dentists get a moment in the spotlight\n <\/p>\n

A moment in the spotlight for hockey dentists. AP correspondent Mike Hempen explains.<\/p>\n

Hughes, like hockey players tend to do, shook off the injury, and he went on to score in overtime<\/a> for a 2-1 win and America\u2019s first gold in men\u2019s hockey since 1980.<\/a> His gap-toothed grin became the picture-perfect encapsulation of a sport where missing teeth is a badge of honor and \u201cspittin\u2019 chiclets\u201d is so ingrained in the lexicon that it\u2019s the name of a popular hockey podcast, not just the candy-coated chewing gum pieces that are somewhat tooth-sized. <\/p>\n

To say that hockey players need dentists is something of an understatement. Every team has one and these specialists join team doctors and other medical staff at every single NHL game, ready to jump into action when the need arises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is an injury to the mouth, our physicians are like, \u2018Oh yeah, we\u2019re so happy you\u2019re here because we would not have been able to do that,\u2019\u201d San Jose Sharks dentist Mark Nishimura said. \u201cSometimes we\u2019re really not busy, and other times, when it\u2019s bad, it\u2019s bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was bad when Nishimura was handed Joe Pavelski\u2019s teeth following a puck to the players\u2019 jaw during in the 2019 playoffs, though that resulted in a goal<\/a>. Later that year, Keith Yandle lost nine teeth, returned to the game and played 168 more in a row.<\/p>\n

Brent Burns took a wayward stick to the face in 2013 that knocked out three pearly whites, and since returning he has skated in more than 1,000 games in a row<\/a>. When a puck ramped off his own stick into his mouth in 2006, Chris Clark needed three hours of surgery involving braces, screws and a cadaver bone . <\/p>\n

Hockey dentistry is about triage<\/p>\n

Clark calls hockey dentists \u201ctriage doctors,\u201d learning about that from his own tooth-losing, palate-fracturing experience with the Washington Capitals.<\/p>\n

Longtime Capitals dentist Tom Lenz was there that game and has seen it all, including driving players to his office at night when time is of the essence. Because a puck or a stick to the mouth almost always causes damage different than the general population, he got nervous in his early days more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know till you get back there, so you always have to be ready to just jump in and take care of it,\u201d Lenz said. \u201cIt can be a simple chipped tooth. It can be teeth knocked out. It can be jaw fractures. … We try to get them stable, out of discomfort \u2014 whatever that takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes dealing with lacerations elsewhere on the faces of players, officials and even coaches. The home dentist, at least in the regular season, is responsible for the visiting team, too, and consults with the other doctors in the building, like when Schepis in early 2024 ruled out Chicago\u2019s Connor Bedard because of a broken jaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The playoffs are different, so Schepis was there on the road when Hughes took a stick to the mouth from Jordan Staal in the series opener between the Devils and Carolina Hurricanes in May 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re snapped in half, the nerves are hanging out, the ice is cold (and) he can\u2019t breathe because the nerves are hanging,\u201d Schepis said. \u201cJust numb him right at the end of the first, did the root canals right there, pulled the nerves out. The orthopedic surgeons think it\u2019s like miracle work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smile, you\u2019re a hockey player<\/p>\n

When Alex Ovechkin took a stick to the mouth in October 2007 that knocked out one of his front teeth, Lenz put in an implant that\u2019s also known as a \u201cflipper\u201d with the plan to make a permanent fix once his career is over. <\/p>\n

Lenz said Ovechkin wanted it immediately, then lost the implant and his smile without the tooth became part of his look, even if his mother did not approve. Ovechkin is now league\u2019s leading career goal-scorer<\/a> and still playing at age 40.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad one made within a day or so because he was so adamant about, \u2019I can\u2019t go around like this,\u2019\u201d Lenz said. \u201cIt\u2019s so him now that it\u2019s going to be strange to see him with all his teeth up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not Hughes, who told Jimmy Fallon<\/a> that missing teeth definitely won\u2019t become his look long term. He has already been fixed up.<\/p>\n

Now in his 14th full season in the league, Brenden Dillon wore a mouthguard playing as a kid because he needed braces three times from hockey-related incidents. After going without one with the minors, he got popped in the mouth in his first NHL fight and has worn one since.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a fun part of it,\u201d Dillon said. \u201cI don\u2019t think basketball, football \u2014 maybe baseball, a ball here and there maybe \u2014 but way more in hockey. Sticks, pucks, the glass, ice \u2014 the whole nine yards. It feels like once a game at least somebody\u2019s getting dinged up with something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hockey players have a high pain tolerance<\/p>\n

Schepis, Lenz and other NHL team dentists work in other sports. Lenz said many of the NBA players he works on have never had sutures before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHockey players sometimes will even go, \u2018How many is it going to be?\u2019\u201d Lenz said. \u201cIf it\u2019s like two or three or so, a lot of the guys will just go: \u2018Then just suture it. No anesthetic, I don\u2019t want to take that. Just suture it and I want to get back out there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Nishimura remembers being asked, \u201cDo you want to put these back in?\u201d when Pavelski lost those teeth off a shot from Burns, his teammate at the time. The Sharks beat Vegas 5-2, and it became part of his courageous career.<\/p>\n

\u201cPavs went back, we numbed him up, sutured him,\u201d Nishimura said. \u201cHe went back out and finished the game. It\u2019s incredible. Hockey players, they don\u2019t quit. They are a special breed of human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillon, now with New Jersey, has had a couple of root canals, a couple of chipped teeth and realizes he should wear his mouthguard in practices, too. Lenz has noticed a decline in facial injuries since visors were made mandatory; only four players, grandfathered in, are skating without one.<\/p>\n

Clark wore a visor sparingly in his playing days but is glad to see the current generation widely adopt it, much like helmets became required equipment, because sticks and pucks to the mouth are such a regular occurrence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of part of the deal,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

So is having a hockey dentist on call. Schepis says he once did a root canal on Jaromir Jagr at 1 a.m. and put in 30-plus sutures for another player when the puck caused damage all the way through his mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of little nuances to sports dentistry vs. regular dentistry because it\u2019s just not standard,\u201d Schepis said. \u201cYou have to move fast and you have to always move with the player\u2019s best intention. But we know they want to be out there. We know the team wants them out there. You always have to be available any time of night.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Schepis was at home with his kids in New Jersey watching the gold medal men\u2019s hockey game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[216128,252720,7817,4821,39930,96105,3506,3505,3827,97,6755,152840,252722,18040,5858,84332,252724,252721,1997,4822,385,13145,16452,95841,835,99,13666,252723,1791],"class_list":{"0":"post-574537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alexander-ovechkin","9":"tag-brenden-dillon","10":"tag-brent-burns","11":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","12":"tag-chris-clark","13":"tag-connor-bedard","14":"tag-dc-wire","15":"tag-district-of-columbia","16":"tag-domestic-news","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-hockey","19":"tag-jack-hughes","20":"tag-jason-schepis","21":"tag-jimmy-fallon","22":"tag-joe-pavelski","23":"tag-jordan-staal","24":"tag-keith-yandle","25":"tag-mark-nishimura","26":"tag-new-jersey","27":"tag-new-jersey-devils","28":"tag-nhl","29":"tag-nhl-hockey","30":"tag-oral-health","31":"tag-sam-bennett","32":"tag-san-jose-sharks","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-sports-stories","35":"tag-tom-lenz","36":"tag-washington-capitals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}