Do you have kids in sports? If so you will want to watch today's Tuesday Tooth Talk! Dr. Kuiper will be discussing sports injuries and how to prevent them with the use of a custom sports mouth guard.

Many people know that it is recommended to use a mouth guard in football but what some people don’t know is that we recommend using protective mouth guards for any contact or high impact sport such as basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, and volleyball. With soccer, for example, heading the ball has the potential to damage the teeth or even the tongue if it gets in the way. Therefore, we always recommend wearing a mouth guard when playing any contact sport. There are usually two options for a mouth guard. The first option would be the standard, over the counter mouth guard that can be bought at Wal-mart, or another store. These are commonly referred to as boil and bite mouth guards. The second option for mouth guards is one that is custom made by your dentist. We recommend that kids playing contact sports get the custom made guards because they are going to fit better and feel more comfortable. A custom made guard is also more likely to stay in the mouth better because of the increased comfort. We all know that a guard can only work if it’s IN the mouth! If the mouth guard stays in better with movement and motion, it will work better. The quality of a custom guard will be much better, meaning it will have more cushion, be more protective, and be more durable than what you can buy at the store. That being said, boil and bite mouth guards bought at the store may be more cost effective for kids who have braces, or for kids who have a lot of wiggly, loose teeth. In those cases, the shifting and movement of teeth means you would be making a new custom mouth guard every few weeks until the teeth have settled, which would get expensive! Having a reliable way to protect the teeth becomes especially important as athletes grow into varsity and jr. varsity sports, and start having more intense contact and collisions.

We really want to prevent as many sports related injuries as possible! If you have any questions or if you know your young athlete is coming into his or her contact sport season, contact us to make an appointment for a custom sports guard!

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