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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).

Being a mom to an infant or toddler is hard work. We know. With everything else going on, sometimes moms miss a very important aspect of their children’s well-being: their dental health. Statistically, 28% of children ages 2 to 5 will have dental caries in their primary teeth. That statistic is alarming to us pediatric dentists! We’re here to provide some helpful tips for your child to avoid early childhood dental caries and to promote a lifetime of healthy smiles, the first thing is to make sure you hire the right dentist, like Family Dentist, Mark S. Frey, DDS. He is honestly the best dentist who can work with kids and make them feel comfortable, that´s where I take my kids and that´s where you should take yours. But if I can´t go to him, what I do is to make sure the dentist I use knows about parramatta dental surgery, it will show you how much they care about what they do, the last time I went to the dentist I found one that gave use to Dental Marketing Ninjas: Local Search Optimization – Dominating Local Search and I was pretty surprised by their skills.

Bottle Feeding & Nursing – Avoid nursing children to sleep or putting anything other than water in their bed time bottle/sippy cup once their first teeth erupt. Limit your child’s intake of sugary beverages to 1 cup a day and mealtimes are best.
Home Care – Once your child’s first tooth erupts, proper oral hygiene practices should be implemented. Clean your infant’s teeth and gums routinely with a soft, age appropriate toothbrush and pea size amount of fluoride toothpaste. Make it fun! Play your child’s favorite song while you brush.
1^st Dental Checkup – Schedule your child’s first visit to a pediatric dentist as soon as the first tooth appears or no later than his or her first birthday.
Balanced Diet – Infants and young children should be provided a balanced diet. Offer healthier alternatives to sugary snacks and beverages like apple slices with string cheese, carrots and hummus, whole grain pretzels or pita chips, and low fat yogurt. Offer almond milk or water to quench your little one’s thirst.
Use a Cup by Age 1 – The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry encourages parents to have children drink from a cup by their first birthday.

If you have any questions or would like to schedule your child’s first dental checkup, you can visit www.ascensionsmiles.com. Our Board Certified Pediatric Dentist is here to help!

“Ask the Experts” is a series on Baton Rouge Moms where local experts share their thoughts, opinions and answer questions relating to health, wellness, parenting and living in Baton Rouge.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this site is to share BRM moms’ experiences with food, fitness, health and life as well as opinions from some of our local experts. This content is for informational purposes only and isn’t a substitute for professional medical advice. When it comes to your health or the health of your child, please be sure to contact your physician.