Sports Mouth Guard Recommendations

5 good reasons to wear a mouth guard

Doesn’t it seem like the list of equipment needed for your child to participate in their favorite sport is endless? Depending on the sport, they may need:

• Goggles
• Shoulder pads
• Thigh pads
• Uniforms
• Helmets
• Knee pads
• Jock straps
• Cleats
• Socks

All of the above pieces of equipment are important from a functionality and/or safety perspective. You know what’s interesting? The fact that one of the simplest pieces of safety sports equipment is neglected.

We’re talking about a mouth guard. A mouth guard is a soft piece of laminate or plastic equipment that helps prevent injuries to following areas:

• Mouth
• Teeth
• Jaw
• Tongue
• Cheeks

However, it’s not uncommon for parents to underestimate a mouth guard’s importance when protecting their child during sports activity.

One reason for this is that some sports don’t require the use of mouth guards. Contact sports such as football or hockey are the obvious sports where mouth guards are needed. Non-contact sports present opportunities for mouth injuries, though. Imagine your child diving for a ball near the net during a tennis match and landing face first on the court.

Consider an American Dental Association (ADA) statistic that estimates how many oral injuries are prevented every year from mouth guard use. Their estimate is that the number exceeds 200,000. While a mouth guard might not prevent a concussion from occurring, it's obvious that it will reduce the severity of a blow to the head.

Your child’s face, tongue and lips are all protected by simply teaching them to place this small piece of plastic into their mouths while playing their favorite sport. They’ll be protected from broken, chipped and knocked-out teeth, as well.

Let’s talk about five specific reasons for why your child should wear a mouth guard when playing sports.

Mouth Guards Avoid The Displacement Of Teeth

Can you imagine a hockey puck flying straight into your child’s mouth at top speed? Breaking a tooth or two seems quite likely. The other thing that might happen, though, is that the high-speed blow to the mouth results in displacing the tooth.

Tooth displacement is when the tooth becomes loosened so much that it easily moves. Professional dental treatment is needed to fix the problem. Not only has your child suffered great pain and suffering, but you’re going to be met with a hefty dental bill.

Using a mouth guard prevents this situation because the device distributes the force of a blow throughout the entire mouth. This means that one tooth is prevented from bearing the entire brunt of the blow and the likelihood of displacement is lessened considerably.

Protect Against Soft Tissue Injury

Teeth aren’t the only area susceptible to injury when playing sports. Getting hit in the mouth often creates a situation where the teeth themselves cause damage to the mouth’s soft tissue.

This might happen when the ball hits a basketball player in the mouth. The blow can cause the player to bite their lip inadvertently when a mouth guard isn’t in use. If the injury is severe enough, then it might require stitches to repair. This type of injury can even lead to plastic surgery.

Using a mouth guard is a simple preventative measure that protects the tongue and cheeks from damage.

Prevent Jaw Fractures With a Mouth Guard

Blows to the head result in a situation where the teeth come into contact with other teeth. This is a problem because flexibility isn't present. The result is often a jaw fracture.

A jaw fracture isn’t something you want your child going through. It usually leads to surgery, is uncomfortable and results in sidelining them from their sport and other life activities for quite some time. A mouth guard adds extra padding to the mouth area and works to prevent the jaw from fracturing.

A Mouth Guard Prevents Fractured Teeth

The last thing you want your child suffering from is a broken tooth. It’s likely that the tooth can be saved in most cases. Here are some scenarios:

• Fractured at the crown: A dentist will typically add some white filling when the crown is still visible. This replaces the area that was fractured.
• Dental pulp is revealed: This usually requires a root canal to repair.
• Fractured tooth root: It’s likely that the tooth can’t be saved in this situation.

Why not make sure a mouth guard is used so your family can avoid all of these unwanted tooth fracture situations?

Prevent Teeth From Being Knocked Out

Getting a tooth knocked is not an enjoyable experience. It hurts and it creates a situation where surgery may or may not save the tooth. For a child going to school, it can also promote teasing and feelings of inadequacy until the situation is fixed.

It all depends on the situation and dentist when it comes to learning whether a knocked-out tooth can be saved. The best thing to do is avoid the situation entirely. Make good use of a quality mouth guard.

Different Types Of Mouth Guards

Now that you know why it’s so important to use a mouth guard, let’s make sure you know about the various types.

Pre-formed mouth guards: These come ready-to-wear and you can easily find them at any local sporting goods store or online. The positive is that this mouth guard version is one-size-fits-all and typically priced at $15 or less.

The challenge is that it’s difficult to talk using a pre-formed mouth guard. They don’t provide the best protection and are bulky. This shouldn’t be your first mouth guard choice.

Boil & bite mouth guards: Again, you’ll find these online or at a sporting goods store and they’re one step up in quality compared against the pre-formed version. You simply boil some water in a pot, drop the mouth guard device in to soften it and then bite down on it so it becomes shaped to the teeth.

Custom-fit mouth guards: These are created in a dental office and are the most expensive mouth guard option available. However, custom-fit mouth guards provide the best protection and comfort because they’re fitted perfectly to your child’s specific teeth and mouth.

Consider that you child will be more prone to use a mouth guard if it is:

• Easy to talk with it in their mouth
• Durable
• Easy to keep clean
• Easy to breath when putting it into use
• Comfortable

That’s why you should make a custom-fit mouth guard your first choice with a boil-and-bite version coming in as a close second option.

By the way, there is debate about whether a mouth guard provides protection against concussions. There is substance to this theory when you consider the extra padding provided between the lower and upper rows of teeth. It's this padding that helps lower the force impact when the jaw gets pushed on the skull in close proximity to the brain.

The bottom line? A mouth guard is a simple fix for many undesirable sports-related injuries. Make sure one is put into use whenever your loved ones are playing sports.