Athletic Mouth Guards can Protect your Teeth
Those who plan to participate in contact sports like skateboarding, football, hockey, and similar high contact physical activities should ensure their teeth are well protected. Those participating face a significant risk of their head coming into contact with other competitors’ elbows, legs, or other body parts, or the ground, putting teeth, gums, and jaws in harm’s way.
How can Athletic Mouth Guards Protect Teeth?
Athletic mouth guards are an important way to protect your mouth when it comes to physical activities. That protection is about not just keeping your smile safe and beautiful, but also about the importance your mouth plays in your overall health. Your mouth is filled with billions of bacteria at any given time. Injuries to the mouth and teeth create a pathway for bad bacteria to get beneath the gum line and further into the body through openings from injuries.
You or your loved ones’ long-term health can be seriously impacted by such injuries. Some injuries don’t initially present great concern but can over time create more serious problems down the road. Last, unprotected teeth can lead to severe injuries beyond the teeth themselves:
Injuries to the Jaw: Athletic mouth guards serve as a cushion when contact to the head or jaw happens. This cushioning reduces the overall shock and pressure jaws are exposed to during contact. Even if a mouth guard does not prevent an injury, it can reduce the damage done.
Concussion: A mouth guard’s ability to cushion can reduce the cranial impact of a blow to the chin and jaw as well. Athletes who wear mouth guards may avoid a concussion that otherwise would have taken place were the athlete’s mouth unprotected
Cuts in Lips and Cheeks: Teeth are made to chew and bite down. An athletic mouth guard protects the rest of your mouth from cuts and lacerations. Some athletes are able to escape with minor cuts when they are hit with unprotected teeth, but severe injuries can take place when your teeth have nothing to bite down on. This can include teeth biting completely through the lip or cheeks.
Get the right type of Athletic Mouth Guard from East Mountain Dental
Many people don’t know that their dentist is able to provide the best mouth protection in the form of custom athletic mouth guards. This is why some people resort to stock mouth guard or the boil and bite varieties. The issue with stock mouth guards is that they are not a complete fit for teeth. This can make breathing and talking more difficult and also reduces the total protection they can provide.
Boil and bite athletic mouth guards provide a better fit for your unique teeth. They simply require that you put the mouth guards in boiling water and then bite down after removing them from the hot water. This custom fit is an improvement over stock mouth guards, but the material isn’t as strong as a custom mouth guard.
Custom-made athletic mouth guards are the best way to protect teeth, period. They are designed and made specifically for an individual’s mouth out of strong materials that last longer and protect better. To make them, we take an impression of your teeth and then construct the mouth guard over the teeth’s model. They are more comfortable, allow for better breathing and talking, and are designed to provide a stronger cushion against injury.
We would love to answer your questions, so give us a call or stop by to learn more about how athletic mouth guards can best protect you or your loved ones.