Many of you must have heard about sports guards, which is also known as mouth guard. This device is generally worn over the teeth in order to get protection from any blows on the face or head.
Mostly athletes prefer to wear these mouth guards who participate in the following sports:
- Football
- Soccer
- Hockey
- Basketball
- Baseball
- Gymnastics
- Skateboarding
- Mountain biking
The youth sports safety foundation has reported that dental injuries are the most common orofacial injury that occurs when people participate sports. According to them, an athlete has sixty times more chances to sustain teeth damage, if he/she doesn’t wear any protective mouthguard.
Typically mouth guards will cover your upper teeth, and they are designed for protecting against cut lips, broken teeth and any other damage to the mouth.
Those of who wear braces or any other kind of fixed dental appliances like bridge on the lower jaw then your Gorokan dentist may suggest such mouth protector for your teeth as well.
Few different kinds of mouth guards?
There can be few different kinds of mouth guards to choose, however whichever mouth guard you prefer to choose it must be comfortable, resilient and tear-resistant. It must also fit in proper manner and not obstruct your speech or while you breathe.
Following are 3 different kinds of mouth guards:
1.Custom-made mouth guards
Any dentist will design such mouth guards individually for you in his own laboratory so that it can fit in your mouth properly. Therefore, naturally they will provide you most comfortable fit to have best protection.
First your dentist will take your teeth’s impression and then will construct your mouth guard by using a model. As this kind of mouth guards will always fit better, and hence most athletes prefer such customized mouth guards.
These mouth guards however, can be most expensive type.
2.Boil and bite type mouth guards
Such kinds of mouth guards are available in pre-formed shape, which can be altered just by boiling this mouth guard in water, then biting them into warm plastic for customized fit.
You can buy such mouth guard from many sports stores that can offer better fit than the following stock mouth protectors that we will discuss next.
You must follow the directions very carefully for avoiding winding up with poor-fitting mouth guards.
3.Stock mouth guards
Usually, these types of guards are quite inexpensive and also come in pre-formed and ready to wear way. However, they often remain misfit and can be quite bulky too. This can also make your talking and breathing little difficult.
How long your mouth guards should last?
Ideally you must replace your mouth guards after each season because they may wear out over a period of time and thus make them less effective.
Particularly for adolescents, timely replacement is very important as their mouths will continue to grow, hence their teeth will continue to develop as they enter into adulthood.
Many of the athletes who have played a number of sports have always got their new mouth guards especially made when they visit their dentist for 6-month dental check-up.