http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2009 ... oid-injuryFace masks help athletes avoid injury
Protective cover spreads impact over wider area of athlete's face, diminishing effect. Halloween is just around the corner, but the masks being worn on area basketball courts and playing fields have nothing to do with the spooky holiday. Designed to take a punch, not deliver a scare, they are protective masks, made by Michigan Hand & Sports Rehab Centers of Warren. Ten-year-old Gabrielle Jones, a sixth-grader at Greyhound Intermediate School in Eaton Rapids, can vouch for their effectiveness. So could Pistons guard Richard Hamilton. He started wearing a mask before the 2004 playoffs and continues to wear it five years later. A pilot study done this summer by a team from Wayne State's sports injury biomechanics lab reinforces what athletes say about the masks: They significantly reduce the risk of serious injury to the face. "When I got the mask, I felt like I could play a long time," said Gabrielle, whose nose was shattered in 2007 when she was hit by an aluminum bat.
Wayne State's team created tests that simulated athletic injuries. A mask made by the orthotics department was placed on the face of a test dummy's head wired with sensors. The dummy was struck in the bridge of its nose by a boxing glove on a mechanical arm and had a baseball fired at it from about 2 feet. The boxing glove simulated the force of a blow from an unintentional elbow in a basketball game. In both tests, the dummy head sustained less damage with a mask than without. But more significantly, the power of the blow was spread out over a longer duration and over a wider area of the face. "We wanted to see if the force is dissipated and distributed to stronger bones in the face. We found with each increase in mask thickness, there were significant increases in protection," said Cynthia Bir, a professor at Wayne State's Biomedical Engineering Department. Most masks made by the department are a quarter-inch thick. "I was not surprised to learn that masks were effective at protecting against injury/reinjury, but I was surprised at how much of a beating they could take and still be effective," said Jeremy Murray, who has been making masks with the Michigan Hand orthotics department since 2001.
The results provide peace of mind that calm athletes and parents. "It's kind of really disappointing when you think about not playing. I'd rather play than sit on the bench," Gabrielle said. The point guard is preparing for her second basketball season wearing a mask. Her mother, Jodi, is grateful her daughter can do what she loves safely. "At first she was told by her doctors she could have no contact. She likes to play sports. She didn't do anything to deserve this," Jodi Jones said. "She likes to play hard, and we didn't want her not to be herself." The Wayne State team published the mask test results at the Fourth European Conference on Protective Clothing in June in the Netherlands. The team plans to run more tests on the mask and other protective masks in the future.
