Us Aussies love our sports! However, while running around the rugby field might be great for your physical and mental health, it can be significantly less beneficial for your teeth.
Indeed, there are over 600 000 emergency room visits each year necessitated by tooth and jaw sports-related injuries. Read on to find out how you can avoid being one of those unfortunate 600 000.
If you’ve ever played a sport, you know to expect the unexpected. Players colliding with each other, equipment flying through the air, possibility of an actual punch to the face if you’re playing a contact sport – all these are things that can and do happen while playing sport. These events can be detrimental to your dental health. A hard blow to the face can cause immense damage, resulting in teeth being chipped or cracked, or even being knocked out entirely. Additionally, a hard enough whack to the face could break or dislocate your jaw or cause a concussion. Indeed, protecting your teeth is just as important as protecting any other part of your body – you wouldn’t go to bat on the cricket pitch without your batting pads protecting your knees and shins, so don’t play without a mouthguard, either!
How Does A Mouthguard Protect My Teeth?
Mouthguards are worn over
teeth and serve to cushion and redistribute impact in the mouth area. Wearing a good-quality mouthguard will greatly reduce the chances of your teeth being knocked out or loosened due to impact and lessen the chances of suffering a concussion. This is because they provide a layer of protection between your top and bottom teeth, so the shock from a blow to the jaw shouldn’t reverberate up through your mouth to your skull. Indeed, so much harm can be prevented through the simple act of wearing a mouthguard that the Australian Dental Association and Sports Medicine Australia have been collaborating on a ‘no mouthguard, no play’ policy for a wide variety of different ball and contact sports. If you or your child is an athlete, you will likely be required to have a mouthguard as part of your compulsory kit in the future if you don’t have one.
What’s The Best Kind of Mouthguard for Athletes?
There are multiple mouthguard options out there for sports players, but just like anything else, they vary widely in quality. Your basic over-the-counter standard sports mouthguard, available at any sporting goods store, is most definitely the option to be avoided. While these generic mouthguards are generally cheaply
priced, remember that you’re getting what you pay for. That unfitted bit of plastic won’t sit securely over your teeth and may not even reach far back enough to provide adequate protection for your back teeth.
Your second option is the ever-so-slightly better ‘boil and bite’ mouthguard. While these beat the standard models, they are not without their negatives. These boil and bite mouthguards can be moulded over your teeth for a more secure fit. However, they are flimsy, don’t have a very long lifespan, and are incompatible with orthodontia such as braces.
Your best bet for proper protection and to help prevent a costly trip to the emergency dentist is a custom sports mouthguard, made especially for you by the team at Crookes & Jenkins Dental. Custom sports mouthguards provide a high level of protection. Because they are specifically moulded to your mouth and fitted by a dental practitioner, there’s less chance of a bad fit, leaving your teeth unprotected. Additionally, custom mouthguards are less likely to impact your ability to communicate clearly with your teammates.
You can also drink water without having to remove your custom mouthguard – great for those quick little hydration breaks!
How Can We Help?
At Crookes & Jenkins Dental, we create custom mouthguards for athletes of all ages. We will carefully take an impression of your teeth and use that mould to manufacture a mouthguard that fits perfectly over your teeth. These custom mouthguards can also be made with orthodontia in mind, so if you or your child wears braces, you can still have the best possible kind of protection!
To find out more about our custom mouthguards, please have a look here.
To make a booking with us, please call (07) 3367 1122, or use our online booking portal.
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