Mouthguards play an important role in the protection of your teeth during contact sports such as rugby, soccer and hockey to prevent dental and orafacial injuries.
Dr Carolyn Langrell-Read recommends mouthguards for any patient who participates in contact sports. This is especially important for children, teenagers, and young adults who need parents and coaches to endorse this.
The New Zealand Dental Association recommends a good mouthguard should be of sufficient thickness in the correct areas, resilient, well retained, comfortable and should not interfere with your speaking and breathing.
- always wear a mouthguard when playing contact sports
- a properly fitted, custom made mouthguard offers the best protection
- ask your dentist about the best mouthguard for YOU
- REMEMBER a broken tooth is damaged for LIFE
What is a mouthguard?
A mouthguard is a dental appliance designed to fit over your teeth in order to protect your smile from damage. An athletic mouthguard, sometimes called a sports guard, is specially made to prevent dental injury during athletic activities. A sports mouthguard is only effective if it is well fitted and worn consistently.
There are three types of mouthguards available, from basic through to custom fitted.
- Stock mouth guards: These come pre-formed and ready to wear and are available for purchase at sports shops and pharmacies. They are convenient and inexpensive, but you cannot adjust the fit well and for this reason they offer minimal protection.
- Boil-and-bite mouth guards: This kind of mouth guard is made from thermoplastic material. You can place it in hot water to soften it, then put it in the mouth to shape it around the teeth for a more customised fit. These can be a challenge to get the plastic hot enough to mould without burning the mouth.
- Custom-made mouth guards: These provide the best possible protection for your smile. Our dentist will create your custom-fitted mouth guard from moulds (impressions) of your mouth, so you know it will fit comfortably and effectively.
Newmarket Family Dental Care recommends wearing a custom-made mouthguard, as this can protect you or your smile from injuries like knocked-out teeth, broken teeth, and injury to the cheeks and tongue.
The customised laminated mouthguards available through Newmarket Family Dental Care have even been shown to reduce jaw fracture and concussion type injuries as they reduce, absorb, and dissipate the impact of injury providing protection for not only the teeth but other facial structures and the brain as well.
Book and appointment or contact us here to discuss your customised mouthguard requirements.
Dental injury during sport and the importance of quick action
In the unfortunate event that you do sustain a dental injury, be sure to contact Dr Langrell- Read to assess the mouth and teeth for possible injury. It is critical that the injury is documented (including photographic and x-ray assessment of the injury) and the appropriate report lodged with Accident Compensation Corporation as soon as possible after the injury occurs.
Be sure to retain the tooth / portion of tooth that has been damaged and seek professional advice within 30 minutes – time is the critical factor in the long term survival of teeth following dental injury. This is particularly important when the dental injury may seem insignificant in the light of other more serious injuries sustained at the time – in major injury cases the dental injury can be overlooked altogether.
Dental injuries may not be obvious to the untrained eye. In some cases the results of an impact to the teeth may not become evident for many years following the initial injury. It is a hard to justify your claim if the appropriate documentation has not been lodged with Accident Compensation at the time of injury. Only a dentist can lodge the dental assessment report to Accident Compensation – the school dental system and medical staff are not trained to provide appropriate assessment and documentation for accident related injuries.
If you are concerned about an injury sustained to your mouth or teeth during sport, please contact us here.