Dental Injuries and Sports: How You Can Protect Your Child’s Teeth
Each year 3 million teeth are knocked out (tooth avulsion is the fancy term) due to sports, some statistics place this number much higher at 5 million teeth. The highest number of incidents happen in sports due to poor facial protection. There are many preventative steps you can take to reduce the probability of this happening with your child as you enter sports seasons. Two major things encouraged by dental professionals are regular six-month dental screenings which can identify the risk of teeth avulsion and custom fit mouthguards.
When Would a Professionally Made Mouthguard Be Recommended?
The American Dental Association and Academy for Sports Dentists recommends a professionally made mouthguard for contact and collision sports. This includes: football, baseball, basketball, rugby, lacrosse, and many more. Baseball and basketball have the highest tooth avulsion rate due to poor facial protection.
How is a Mouthguard Made?
Professional and custom fitted mouthguards are made by dental professionals by taking impressions of your mouth. This allows the mouthguard to fit your teeth structure perfectly and provide a much more comfortable bite. Custom mouthguards can even be made to fit players with braces. Once the impressions are made, the model of your teeth is sent to a local lab and a perfectly fitting mouthguard is created just for your player.
Why Choose a Professionally Made Mouthguard?
This custom mouthguard not only decreases the risk of dental injury, but unlike over-the-counter boil and bite guards it is more durable, less likely to lose its shape, and much more comfortable. This means it’s less likely to be left in the locker room before game time. A properly fitting mouthguard can also allow for a better oxygen flow.
Dental Injuries and Sports
By decreasing the risk of tooth avulsion, you are also saving money. All three of our locations offer FREE Mouthguards for Life with regular cleanings. This means:
- You can bring your mouthguard in every 6 months to make sure it’s still in strong condition and fitting properly.
- You reduce the risk of having to pay for a tooth implant due to a tooth being knocked out.
- You can replace if the family dog decides he’d like a new chew toy.
Five million kids having their teeth knocked out is not a number you want your athlete to be in. To find out more information on our Mouthguard for Life program, you can schedule an appointment at one of our three locations, College Family Dentistry, Bencaz Family Dentistry, or Greenwell Springs Family Dentistry. We are open till 7pm some days (which means, no need for your athlete to miss school).