The Real Cost Of Not Wearing A Mouthguard

A mouth guard is one of the most inexpensive pieces of protective gear available to young athletes, especially when compared to the high cost of restoring a knocked out or broken tooth.  For a lot of athletes, mouthguards aren’t always the piece of equipment that’s first to be thrown in the gym bag – often because it’s not required for every sport. In reality, mouthguards can help prevent a lot of sports injuries and needs to be officially part of your game-day protective gear.

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Mouthguards help prevent many mouth and face injuries
The truth is, oral injuries are common while playing sports. Athletes, when not using a mouthguard, are 60 times more likely to suffer harm to their teeth. Each year 200,000 oral injuries are prevented each year just by wearing a mouthguard. Besides protecting your teeth, mouthguards also protect injuries to gums, lips, tongue and jaw. Protecting your mouth helps keep everything in place.

Wearing a sports mouthguard is especially important for those wearing braces
Taking a blow to the face during any sport while wearing braces is painful and if you collide with another player and they come in contact with your braces, it can hurt them as well. On top of that, oral injuries can damage braces and potentially lead to more orthodontist expenses.

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The good news? Many sports related oral injuries can easily be prevented with the use of a mouthguard. Mouthguards are a very affordable and crucial preventive measure to ensure that an individual, especially a child, is adequately protected while engaging in a contact sport. The price of an Australian Dental Association (ADA) approved youth mouthguard will run you around $30, which is a small price to pay when you consider what valuable assets you are protecting.

Unfortunately, between 16% and 46% of athletes report not wearing mouthguards because of discomfort or decreased ability to talk and breathe.  So the challenge is finding a mouthguard that offers protection and comfort. Mouthguards that don’t fit well can affect the ability breathe, communicate, and stay hydrated. And an ill-fitting or uncomfortable mouthguard is more likely to be taken out during the game, leaving athletes vulnerable to injuries to the lips and soft tissues in the mouth, as well as dental injuries like chipped teeth, nerve damage and tooth loss.

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Not all sports mouthguards are created equal, so when choosing what’s best for you, there’s a lot to consider: What is the mouthguard made from? Does it offer superior shock absorption? Is it easy to fit and comfortable to wear for long periods of time?

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Types of Mouthguards

The best mouthguard for your child is the one he or she actually wears, both at practice and on game day. There are several different types of mouthguards on the market, which generally fall into three categories:

• Off-the-shelf mouthguard. Available at many sporting goods stores, this type comes in a limited range of sizes, and varies widely in quality. The least expensive option, it offers a minimal level of protection that's probably better than nothing. It generally must be clenched in the mouth, which can make wearing it uncomfortable and cause trouble breathing and speaking.
• “Boil and bite” mouthguard. These are designed to be immersed in hot water, and then formed in the mouth using finger, tongue and bite pressure. When they can be made to fit adequately, they generally offer better protection than the first type — but they may still be uncomfortable, and usually fail to offer full coverage of the teeth.
• Custom-made mouthguard. This is a piece of quality sports equipment that's custom-fabricated for your child's mouth. We start by making a model of the teeth, and then mold the protector around it for a perfect fit. It's made from tough, high-quality material, offering maximum protection and a superior level of comfort — and its cost is quite reasonable.

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Currently, when top-quality sports equipment for kids can run in the hundreds of dollars, it makes more sense than ever to invest in the proven protection of a professionally made, custom-fitted mouthguard.

For more information on Children’s Mouthguards in Balwyn please call our clinic on 03 9817 7144 today.