Mouth Guards & Sports Dentistry

At expatdental® we recommend mouthguards for any activity where there is a risk to the teeth and mouth area; from contact with a ball, or a sports opponent’s elbow or sporting equipment. Mouthguards are essential or very highly recommended for sports such as football, rugby, boxing, martial arts, hockey, ice hockey, basketball, lacrosse, equestrian polo. Trauma from accidents on scooters, skate-boarding, mountain biking are sports where mouth guards are not compulsory but are considered invaluable. We recommend that any activity that could put teeth at risk is an opportunity to wear a mouthguard.

The key question to ask is ”how do I know if my child will be at risk of dental injury”? The risk of dental trauma is directly related to the patient’s ‘overjet’ – this is how far in front the top teeth protrude, relative to the lower teeth. As the overjet increases, the risk of dental injury from trauma directly increases. Adults and children whose lips do not meet together at rest are also more likely to have dental injury from trauma. Ideally, the lower lip should rest just in front of the upper front teeth, and this protects the teeth. If children cannot achieve a lip-seal when their mouth is at rest, then the upper front teeth could be left exposed and at risk of damage on impact.

First, try your best to calm down. Find the tooth, and any pieces of it. If you have saline, place it in saline. If your child is old enough to understand, have them put it in their cheek to keep it in its most natural environment. As a last resort, put it in some milk. Do not wash the tooth or scrub it at all; you could damage the fibers on the root of the tooth. Call our clinic as soon as possible.

We carry all of the local schools colors. We will try our best to make it customized for you!

Wearing fixed braces  is not a problem as there has been vast improvements in the market regarding mouthguards that fit over braces. Many of these can be remoulded at home, to accommodate the teeth as they straighten throughout treatment. Some brands that we recommend at expatdental® are Opro (choose the ‘gold’ level for brace wearers), Shock Doctor and SISU.

However, the most perfect fit of mouthguard with braces is the custom-made option, where your orthodontist takes a mould or scan of your teeth and braces and a special custom made mouthguard is designed to fit.

Research shows that professionally made and fitted sports mouth guards are much more effective in preventing sports injuries.

Recent research shows that American football players who wore the thinner over the counter sports mouth guards had twice as many concussions as their counterparts wearing the thicker professionally made guards.