Dental injuries arising from sports result in 600,000 emergency room visits each year.
Don’t be one of those 600,000! Let Bayview Dental Centre create a custom mouthguard to keep your teeth safe and protected! As any athlete will tell you, having excellent equipment makes a huge difference. Everyone wants the best shoes, helmets, bats, or racquets – anything that they feel will increase their performance.
What people sometimes forget about is the need to protect their teeth and jaw. Injuries arising from sports-related impacts to the face and mouth account for a vast number of dental emergencies each year. It is estimated that athletes are 60 times more likely to suffer tooth and jaw damage when not using a mouthguard.
In an attempt to lessen the number of these kinds of injuries, Sports Medicine Australia has been working in collaboration with the Australian Dental Association. They aim to make mouthguards a compulsory part of the kit for several different sporting activities. If you or your children participate in a contact or ball sport, you likely need a mouthguard.
How Does a Mouthguard Protect Me?
No-one likes being hit in the face. It hurts, it’s unpleasant, and unless you’re doing an activity like boxing or other fighting sport, it’s probably not meant to happen. Wearing a mouthguard greatly reduces your risk of suffering damage to your teeth and jaw if you unexpectedly receive a blow (or a ball!) to the face.
Mouthguards are designed to cushion impacts to the mouth, and are worn over the top row of teeth. They help to absorb and redistribute impact, leading to a smaller risk of injury. Additionally, they provide protection to your tongue, gums, and inner cheek lining.
Without a mouthguard, you risk not only breaking or cracking your teeth, but even losing them completely! Further benefits to wearing a mouthguard include a reduction in the chance of breaking your jaw, suffering neck damage, or dealing with a concussion.
What Is the Best Mouthguard for Sport?
Important to remember is that not all mouthguards are created equally. What you save in cash when buying a cheap mouthguard could come back to haunt you when faced with the cost of orthodontic surgery necessitated by a hit to the mouth. It’s far better to spend more and be protected than to spend less and suffer the consequences down the line.
The cheapest option, and one which we certainly don’t recommend, is your basic commercial or stock mouthguard. These can be bought over the counter at sporting goods stores and come in generic sizes. Because these mouthguards are not fitted or moulded to your mouth, they cannot offer the same level of protection a custom sports mouthguard can. Furthermore, these stock mouthguards make it difficult to breathe and talk – definitely a hindrance during a high-stakes game.
The second type of sports mouthguard available is the ‘Boil and Bite’ mouthguard. As the name implies, these are slightly more fitted to your mouth, as they are softened in boiling water before being moulded over your teeth. While these are better than stock mouthguards, unfortunately, they are often incompatible with orthodontia such as braces. They also don’t have a long lifespan.
If you want the best protection, your only option is a custom-made mouthguard. At Bayview Dental Centre, we make custom mouthguards for clients of all ages and can provide a range of colours and decorative prints. You can even get the logo or mascot of your team on your mouthguard!
The process of making your custom mouthguard involves taking an impression of your teeth before using that impression to create plaster models of your mouth. These will then be used to manufacture a mouthguard specifically fitted to your teeth and mouth. Added to it is a special layer of force-absorbing material to protect and cushion your teeth and jaw.
Because these custom mouthguards are properly fitted to your teeth, they provide a much greater level of protection. Another benefit is that athletes can still communicate, breathe, and even drink water without having to remove their custom mouthguards.
How Can We Help?
Here at Bayview Dental Centre, we provide our clients with top-of-the-line custom sports mouthguards. Offering both protection and comfort, custom mouthguards are a crucial part of any athlete’s kit. Custom mouthguards have a long lifespan.
When taken care of, it can last for many years before needing to be replaced. We highly recommend the use of a custom mouthguard when playing sport – it’s great to win, but it’s better to come off the field with all of your teeth intact!
To make a booking, please get in touch with our team of dental professionals at our Helensvale and Runaway Bay practices today!