Mouthguards for Sports Decrease Dental Injuries

"Dental injuries are the most common type of orofacial injury sustained during participation in sports." They include chipped and fractured teeth, loosened teeth, and teeth that are knocked out totally from the mouth. Most of the time the injured teeth are the top front teeth. This is why many states are requiring all students participating in school related sports to wear mouth guards on their upper teeth. A mouthguard reduces the injuries to teeth and supporting structures, as well as decreases the incidences of lip lacerations. At Okun Orthodontics we now fabricate pressure- formed mouthguards, which are the gold standard of mouthguards today.

There are three types of mouthguards. Type 1: Stock mouthguards: These are inexpensive and fit well over braces. Unfortunately they offer only a low level of protection since they often fall out at impact, or are removed by the athlete because they interfere with speech. Type 2: "Boil and Bite": These are also inexpensive, and bulky. The "customizing procedure" of heating and biting into the guard tends to leave thin spots that are not very protective. Type 3: Customized: these require a trip to the dentist. Most customized guards are still the older vaccum-formed type that distort over time, and have manufacturing limitations to the thickness of the material. The newest technique pressure forms 2 layers of material with precise adaptation for maximum protection. These guards have excellent retention and interfere much less with speech. If you wear braces and participate in a high impact sport, consider making a customized sportsguard for each season (every 3 months) to not interfere with tooth movement. If you are still losing baby teeth you will also need to replace your guard frequently.

At Okun Orthodontics, we have recently purchased a Drufomat positive-pressure thermoforming machine to fabricate custom mouthguards in our office. We are the first dental office in Westchester to have its own machine! Currently we have blue, black, neon green, and red/white/blue material in stock, and can order new colors as requested. Sign up your whole team to make mouthguards at the same time and we'll give you a volume discount!