Sports mouth guard-4

Sports and recreation accidents are among the most common reasons for dental injuries.. Each and every year, over 5 million teeth are knocked out through sports activities. Though this amount is shocking, the American Dental Association guesses that more than 200,000 mouth injuries are prevented every year because of the use of PlaySafe® sports mouthguards. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association’ newsletter, NATA News, and the American Dental Association declare that sports athletes are seven times more likely to experience an orofacial injury if they don’t wear mouth protection. For anyone who is presently involved with sports and activities where contact to the face is a possibility, it is best to make use of an appropriately fitted mouthguard to shield your teeth. Why do you really need a mouthguard?

A mouthguard helps absorb and disperse the effect of a hit to your face which could often cause an injury to the mouth area or jaw. A custom-fit mouthguard will help to shield oral tissue from laceration by protecting the lips, tongue, cheeks and gums. By acting as a shock-absorbing bumper in absorbing and bouncing off impact force, it may help to shield your brain from a concussion by lessening the jolt of a blow to your lower jaw. Last but not least, a custom-fit mouthguard may also help protect your jaw joints from becoming dislocated and corresponding injuries by properly supporting and padding the lower jaw up against your skull; and similarly may help prevent jaw fracture by acting as a cushion involving the top and bottom jaws.

Dental traumas may lead to lost time from work or school, can be very painful and facially disfiguring, and could require time-consuming as well as expensive dental treatment. The price of and personal injury to your teeth or jaw far exceeds the price tag on a custom-fit mouthguard.

Proper usage of a quality custom laminated mouthguard (CLM) helps to reduce the incidence of orofacial injury; like the one pictured here resulting from an elbow hit to a basketball player.

When exactly should you wear a mouthguard?

Mouthguards should really be used when playing and practicing for any recreational acrtivity or sports activity where there is the likelihood of contact to the face. It is essential to wear a mouthguard when participating in football, and also while participating in any other sports where there is the chance of being hit in the jaw or head. These types of sports include hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball as well as skateboarding, skiing, and biking or cycling.

The Academy for Sports Dentistry (ASD) has a list of over 40 types of sports where mouth protection would be advantageous to the players.

Children in addition as young as 7 years of age can be easily fitted with custom laminated mouthguards (CLMs). They too might be injured when enjoying both organized as well as unorganized (school yard and street) sports.

Which type of mouthguard do I need to wear?

There are several types of mouthguards available covering anything from inexpensive, over-the-counter products to expertly custom-fit mouthguards. All mouthguards are certainly not created equal and the significant variations are outlined underneath.

Over-The-Counter Mouthguards

Both normal as well as boil and bite mouthguards are available in sports equipment retail stores and neither fit in nor work as effectively as custom fabricated varieties. Stock mouthguards do not need fitting, and quick and cheap mouthguards that are self-fitting are placed in hot water and bitten into (“boil and bite”) to produce a loose fit.

These types of cumbersome mouthguards just won’t fit as well as a custom-fit mouthguard and tend to be awkward to wear, and often interfere with breathing in and speaking. Store purchased mouthguards may not be modified and need you to keep your mouth clenched at all times for any chance of protection. PlaySafe® mouthguards, on the other hand, keep in place with no effort in an open mouth giving you the capability to put your awareness where it belongs – in the game! In addition all these low quality stock products don’t factor in the degree of opposition, sport played, individual’s age, nor history of injury and concussions. The inadequate information which is supplied with over-the-counter goods lends to a phony perception of protection, when the truth is the store purchased guards are significantly and hazardously substandard to custom-fitted laminated mouthguards. A number of scientific studies place their degree of safety as no greater than donning no mouthguard whatsoever.

Vacuum-fabricated mouthguards don’t retain sufficient density, form, and fit over time. The production of mouthguards under vacuum pulls the guard substance away from the biting edges of the top anterior teeth, bringing about excessive loss of the mouthguard material in the exact areas where sports athletes are in danger. As time passes these types of vacuum mouthguards will experience memory transformation. Consequently, the mouthguard that fits at the very first insertion, after a few weeks of function on the teeth evidences thinning, looseness, and perforation after frequent chewing from the user.

Custom-Laminated Mouthguards

Custom-laminated mouthguards (CLMs) are made by a dentist, who will take an impression and produces a plaster design of your teeth. Custom fitment make it possible for the dentist to precisely assess your mouth and provide the very best fitting mouthguard that is best suited for your sport.

Tests conducted in Germany clearly show that:

CLMs offer up to 1000% additional protection compared with boil and bite mouthguards.

CLMs can offer 400% to 500% extra protection than a regular mouthguard made by the conventional vacuum technique.

The custom lamination production process will allow full design flexibility.

4 levels of protection can be found:

•  Light protection mouthguards are made to be soft and pliable. They are meant to be used by kids and for low-impact sporting activities such as mountain biking and volleyball. Medium protection mouthguards are all-purpose and suitable for nearly all club sports (e.g., soccer, rugby, basketball and softball).

•  Heavy protection mouthguards are generally recommended for heavy contact sports like boxing and martial arts. Quite possibly the most efficient heavy protection mouthguard is the PlaySafe® Heavy, that includes unique built-in impact dispersion rings.

•  Extra heavy protection mouthguards are for the most intense collision sports including kick boxing and sports activities requiring close-contact utilization of sticks and racquets.

•  Several other regular options include things like single or multiple colors, helmet straps, and personal team names and logos.

Due to its unique design and structural features, greater energy absorption, outstanding impact distribution, advanced materials, and remarkable fit, CLMs can:

•  Decrease tooth cracks and dislocation, soft tissue lacerations, and bruising.
•  Provide elevated tooth edge protection – An exclusive attribute of the mouthguard is it has extra density of material adjacent to the vulnerable biting edges on the top teeth providing further protection from an abrupt impact.
•  Protect against concussion of the brain – The mouthguard is supplied with indents in the biting surface to support the tips of the bottom teeth to ensure that in case of an impact on the bottom jaw it is safely immobilized preventing reverberation of the brain.
•  Safeguard against jaw fractures, condyle and facial traumas, and dislocations.
•  Reduce the likelihood of neck and central nervous system injury.
•  Supply total accommodation for partial or full denture wearers.
•  Supply higher levels of comfort and wearability.
•  Decrease interference with speaking and breathing.
•  Stop mouthguard dislocation or gagging by wearers. Reduce the potential for injuries and time spent on the sidelines by players.
•  Increase player self-confidence.