It's school season once again. It's the time for sports activities and requirements but before anything else—it’s also important to take steps to protect your mouth from unnecessary injury with an affordable but often overlooked device: the mouth guard.
A mouth guard is an essential piece of athletic gear that should be part of your standard equipment. Using mouth guards during sports or athletic activity can help prevent dental damage.
Primarily, the function of mouth guards is to protect the teeth from being chipped, fractured, or knocked out as a result of a direct blow to the face, something that is fairly common in contact sports. When you protect your teeth, you also shield your lips and cheeks from cuts or rips due to chipped or broken teeth. The mouth guard serves as shock absorber. It is also often instinct to bite down before an impact, and a mouth guard gives you something to bite into. It lessens the impact of the blow and prevents injuries, such as fractures to the jaw.
Secondarily, adults and children who grind their teeth at night should be recommended with a custom dental guard or occlusal splint made to prevent tooth damage. Bite guards are recommended for for temporomandibular disorders (TMD), bruxism, or clenching to allow your lower and upper jaw to come together without tooth contact, thereby reducing muscle pain and tooth wear.
Moreover, mouth guards are especially important for those wearing braces – with those sharp brackets; it can cause severe lacerations on the lips and inside of the mouth in the event of a collision. An impact against braces can even cause permanent dental injuries or damage to the braces. By preventing damage to braces, mouth guards, saves you from having to make an extra trip to the orthodontist, which costs time and money.
There are three types of mouth guards:
Stock mouth protectors They are preformed, ready to wear, inexpensive and can be bought at most sporting good stores and department stores. However, little can be done to adjust their fit, they are bulky, make breathing and talking difficult, and they provide little or no protection. Dentists do not recommend their use.
Boil and bite mouth protectors These can also be bought at many sporting goods stores and may offer a better fit than stock mouth protectors. The "boil and bite" mouth guard is made from thermoplastic material. It is placed in hot water to soften, then placed in the mouth and shaped around the teeth using finger and tongue pressure.
Custom-fitted mouth protectors They are individually designed and made in a dental clinics. First, your dentist will make an impression of your teeth and a mouth guard is then molded over the model using a special material. Due to the use of the special material and because of the extra time and work involved, this custom-made mouth guard is more expensive than the other types, but it provides the most comfort and protection.
For maximum protection, a mouth guard should cover all the teeth and the bite should be balanced. The thicker the better, but comfort should also need to be taken into consideration when it comes to thickness. It is also important that the mouth guard stays in place in the event of an impact, and so you don’t have to continuously bite down to keep it in place. That’s why it’s important to go to your dentist for custom-fitted mouth guard.
Remember, damaged teeth do not grow back. Protect that perfect smile – wear a mouth guard.
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