Everything you need to know about mouth gaurds
“A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.”
If your Child plays a contact sport, and a lot of Aussie Children do, they risk injuring their teeth. These sort of injuries can be difficult to treat, and often involve a lifetime of expense.
Mouthguards can protect you from serious sporting injuries, such as broken jaws, fractured, cracked or knocked-out teeth, cut lips and tongues.
Most player will wear a mouthguard if they are a playing an obvious contact sports like rugby union, rugby league, AFL, hockey and boxing. However even non-contact sports like cricket, basketball, netball, touch football, skateboarding, bike riding and soccer, carry a real risk of accidental collision, and resulting dental trauma.
How a mouthguard works
A custom-fitted mouthguard works by absorbing and spreading the impact of the damaging blow, and is fabricated based on an impression of your teeth and jaw taken by your dentist.
Custom-fitted mouthguards are far superior to an over-the-counter mouthguard because it’s specifically designed to fit the exact contours of your mouth, is strong, balances your bite and allows speech and normal breathing.
Mouthguards are especially important for those Children having orthodontic treatment (Braces) as due to the braces if a sport injury were to happen it could seriously cut their lips and tongue and also compromise their orthodontic treatment.
If growth and development has stopped and if the mouth guard has been properly used, stored, and checked yearly by your dentist, a custom-fitted mouthguard should last several seasons.
Over-the-counter mouthguards (chemist brands) do not protect the teeth, are loosely fitted, impair breathing and speaking, and can even wedge in the back of the throat at impact which could be life threatening.
Wearing a custom-fitted mouthguard
To keep your mouthguard in tip-top working order, you’ll need to keep it out of the sun, wash it in cold water after use, keep on the supplied plastic model cast and get your dentist to make sure it’s still OK when you go in for your routine check-ups.
Only dental professionals can design and manufacture a custom-fitted mouthguard that provides adequate protection.
At Morphett Vale Dental Care would like to prevent sports injuries and we construct custom fitted mouthguard which are far superior to an over- the- counter mouthguard.
As they have an accurate fit, le you talk normally, don’t restrict your breathing and stay firmly in place, allowing you to concentrate on playing the sport you love.
You should consider it a mandatory part of your sporting equipment, no matter your age or experience.
