What is a Sports Mouth Guard?
Sports are a vital part of many children and adult lives, giving them skills and benefits they would not obtain as easily without. In adolescents, sports give them the chance to boost their self-esteem, improve cognitive skills, and learn basic communication with peers and authority figures. Adults on the other hand can use sports to improve their physical health and to connect with friends in a fun, competitive atmosphere. The list of benefits sports gives continues to grow, but like most good things, there can always be a disadvantage. Sports can be fun and lighthearted, but it doesn’t come for free! Dental injuries are a common risk involved in these activities and we want you all to know how to prevent them for your children and yourself.
According to The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, “Sports-related dental injuries account for 40% of all dental injuries in the United States...” That is a huge number to think about coming directly from sports! Teeth are delicate bones that should be handled with care and consideration in any event, especially sports. That is why a Sports Mouth Guard is so important to us. At Green Leaf Dental Care, we want the best for your mouth while you are having fun and learning through sports. We know it is a crucial experience to many and we want to protect you while playing the games you love.
What is a Mouth Guard?
You may ask, what even is a mouth guard? Well, for starters there are many different types of mouth guards for all types of things such as grinding your teeth, snoring, sleep apnea, braces, and sports. But generally speaking, a mouth guard is a protective mouthpiece that covers and cushions your teeth and gums to prevent and reduce injuries to the mouth. A mouth guard is like a helmet for your teeth, it protects all the important parts in case of any potential injury. While there are many uses you can get out of a mouth guard, the first one was initially designed for sports. Way back in 1890, a London dentist named Woolf Krause knew that something needed to be created to protect the people who were participating in sports with increased injuries to the mouth. He developed the first mouth guard specifically for boxers to protect them against the heavy blows to the face. Since then, mouth guards have been widely adapted for sports that have high risks for dental injury.
What is the difference between a Night Guard and a Sports Guard?
As mentioned earlier, there are many types of mouth guards with a variety of uses. The two most commonly known is a night guard and a sports guard. These are often confused by patients and the community because of their similarities. Though they can look the same, they have very different purposes.
A night guard protects you in the night! While sleeping, some experience teeth grinding or jaw clenching, which can lead to worn teeth, jaw pain, and sometime tooth fractures. There are tell signs to know if you need a night guard which are worn tooth enamel, sensitive teeth, jaw pain, sore jaw muscles, headaches, and sleep disruption. If you are experiencing any of these, then a night guard is right for you!
The other type of mouth guard is a sports mouth guard. These are designed specifically for injuries that may occur during sports. These are injuries such as hard impacts, blows to the face, falls, lacerations, and anything else that could possibly go wrong while playing. Majority of sports teams require or strongly suggest a sports mouth guard to be preventative of all the possibilities that could occur.
Custom made vs. store-bought.
We know that a store-bought sports mouth guard provides a level of convenience that lets you have access quicker, which is always great for patients. But sometimes quicker products aren’t exactly what will help you.
A store-bought mouth guard is typically the “boil and bite” type. When you buy it, the mouth guard is hard and doesn’t fit your teeth, but by boiling it, it creates flexibility for you to bite and create an impression. Though this may seem like a quality form of protection, a store-bought guard doesn’t fit as accurately as a custom-made guard your dentist could make for you. This potentially could lead to compromised protection instead of a “quick fix.”
With a custom made sports mouth guard, your dentist takes accurate impressions to create a guard that fits perfectly to your mouth and teeth, giving you as much support and protection as possible. Green Leaf Dental Care provides our patients with quality, custom made mouth guards quickly and efficiently to ensure safety to every child and adult that needs it when participating in the sports they enjoy.
Green Leaf Dental Care’s approach to custom sports mouth guards.
At our office, we have three simple steps to creating an accurate and safe sports mouth guard. Starting off, we start with impressions. Our impressions aren’t the usual goopy molding that you may be used to, but we use an advanced technology called an iTero Digital Impression Scanner. With the iTero Scanner, we ditch the molding mess and use a digital camera to obtain a 3D scan of every inch of the inside of your mouth, including all the minor details your mouth has.
From there, we will take your digital scan to our office 3D printer and create a tangible model of your mouth. Our staff makes sure that everything matches nicely and will be a perfect fit for you before moving forward with making the final product.
The last step in the process of fabricating the custom guard is to use a machine to vacuum seal the bite guard material onto your 3D printed model. This is the step that allows for a customized mouth guard that is molded to your teeth. This creates a fit that is snug and is far more superior to a boil-and-bite guard that is found at the store. We have the ability to also make the guard in a variety of colors, including your school colors.
At our office, we encounter many dental injuries from not protecting your mouth or using the wrong types of protection in sports. There are too many incidents that can be easily prevented by knowing and understanding the importance of a custom made sports mouth guard, so now that you know, come get your guard from us! You can call our office at (636)671-0102, visit our website, our book online at https://patientportal-vo.carestack.com/#/online-appointments/select-reason to get your custom guard as soon as possible.
Green Leaf Dental Care