Mighty Mouthguard
Protect Your Teeth During Contact Sports
By Amy Morgan
You invested in braces and now your student has beautiful straight teeth. Or maybe your teen still sports a mouth full of metal. Either way, safeguard their smile when they return to sports this fall. A hit to the mouth can chip, break or even take out a tooth and cause bone damage – undoing all the benefit of years of orthodontia in an instant. Mouthguards reduce the risk of injury from an accidental fall or hit to the face by spreading the force of a blow over a larger area and absorbing some of the shock. Well-made mouthguards may also reduce the rate and severity of concussions, according to the American Dental Association (ADA).
Professional athletes can set good examples. Golden State Warriors Guard Steph Curry is known for his mouthguards – in fact, one even sold at auction for more than $3,000. He’s known to chew on his mouthguard during free throws and throw it when he is upset.
What do pros like Curry know? Athletes are 60 times more likely to suffer an injury to the mouth when they are not wearing a mouthguard, the ADA says. Take the 2009 elbow-to-face collision between NBA Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki and Houston Rockets forward Carl Landry. After fouling Nowitzki, Landry was left with five chipped teeth chipped and was immediately sent to the emergency room. The Mavs subsequently found pieces of Landry’s teeth stuck in Nowitzki’s right arm – yuck!
If a tooth sustains a direct impact, it could break or be knocked out. Not only is this painful — because your teeth are surrounded by sensitive nerves — permanent teeth do not grow back. Fixing or replacing broken teeth can be expensive and require multiple procedures. You could also break the bones of your jaw. Another risk of tooth injury is displacement. If the line of your teeth is compromised, the treatment is surgery.
“Most tooth loss in people under 35 years of age is caused by athletic injury/trauma with an average restoration or replacement cost of $4700.00,” said Michael Roberts, D.D.S., 7to7 Dental & Orthodontics’ lead Orthodontist, with 33 years of experience.
Playing contact sports can be especially dangerous for young athletes in braces. Adolescents in braces suffer routine traumas from sports injury because off-the-shelf, moldable mouth guards are unable to cover braces and sometimes break them off, Dr. Roberts said. The first time you pick somebody’s lips out of their braces after they’ve been hit in the face with a basketball is not fun, he added.
This is no longer an issue with Invisalign. Invisalign liners can serve double duty as an orthodontic appliance to straighten and protect the teeth and gums as a mouthguard in school-aged sports.
7to7 Dental’s professionals can make customized mouthguards to fit your athlete’s personal anatomy so the guard can become an essential part of game equipment. The ADA considers custom-made mouthguards the most protective option. Mouthguards made in a dental office are
composed of thermoplastic material that is much more durable than the generic plastic found in store-bought mouthguards and are made using thermoforming techniques and a patient’s unique mouth impressions.
Once you’ve selected your mouthguard, don’t forget to take care of it. Clean it every time you wear it to make sure it’s not carrying bacteria. Book an appointment today for a custom mouthguard or consider the protective benefits of Invisalign.
With the professionals at 7to7 Dental fitting the mouthguards, athletes (and their parents) can rest assured the fit is spot-on and the investment in their athlete’s smile is protected.
