Sports Mouth Guards

Dental trauma is one of the common issues of dental emergency visit. Many studies show that between 13% and 39% of all dental injuries are sports related. Researchers found the five most common causes of childhood injuries related with sports in order of frequency are: basketball, baseball, football, hockey and soccer.

A properly fitted mouth guard is an essential piece of any athlete's protective equipment. How can we as a parent or a sport’s coach protect our children and help the young generation to enjoy sport activities? Besides a helmet, a protective eye wear or a face shield a mouth sport guard significantly can reduce risk of teeth or soft tissue trauma.

What are the advantages of the custom mouth guard fabricated over a dental cast of the athlete's teeth? In addition to the best fit custom made mouth guard also do not restrict speech and breathing. Why it is important that the mouth guard fit tight into an athletes’ mouth? The poor fitting mouth guard does not distribute the collision forces. In collision the object as a baseball, or an elbow or opposing teeth impose forces toward anterior teeth and cause trauma. Also teeth by itself can traumatize the soft tissue in the mouth or child lips. The force causes trauma can be decrease by increasing time or length over which collision occurs. This effect can be achieved by placing mouth guard around teeth and gums and separating upper and lower teeth by soft material.

The custom made sport guard protects not only teeth but also gums and faces soft tissue. The picture shows one of the custom made clear sport guard that was fabricated at single dental visit. The cost of fabrication custom mouth guard is the same as simple cosmetic restoration of broken front tooth