Sports can be fun and have a profoundly beneficial impact on your overall health. But do you need to wear a mouthguard while playing sports? In this article, we discuss the benefits of mouthguards for both amateur sports lovers and professional athletes.

Do You Need to Wear a Mouthguard While Playing Sports?

A mouthguard is a dental appliance typically made of ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) or other thermoplastic materials. It usually covers both the upper and lower arches of your teeth. The purpose of the mouthguard is to create a protective barrier for your teeth, gums, and jawbones and to absorb the force in the event of a facial impact. The main benefits of the mouthguard include:

A mouthguard protects you from facial bone fractures
A mouthguard protects your teeth from being broken, chipped, cracked, or knocked out
A mouthguard lowers the risk of tooth root damage and blood vessel and soft tissue damage

Regardless of whether you are a professional athlete or play sports for fun, wearing a mouthguard during games, practice, and competition can benefit your oral health and prevent expensive and time-consuming treatments in the future.

Most sports activities, especially extreme and contact sports, can result in falling or getting hit in the face. As a consequence, facial bone fractures are a common occurrence among athletes. Also, facial and oral traumas often lead to tooth root damage and blood vessel damage. Both types of injuries can result in tooth loss. These traumas can be especially inconvenient for those who need to train for competition, as the injury can put them out of commission for weeks.

A mouthguard is specially designed to absorb the force from an impact to the face, thus preventing jawbone fractures. Additionally, a mouthguard creates a protective barrier for the teeth, preventing them from being broken, knocked out, cracked, or chipped. Thus, your mouthguard can eliminate the need for costly and complicated procedures, such as veneers or implants, in the future.

How to Choose a Mouthguard

There are two main types of mouthguards you can choose from, depending on your budget and personal preferences:

Over-the-counter Mouthguards

Over-the-counter mouthguards are premade, meaning that they can be only minimally customizable, if at all. Boil-and-bite mouthguards can be adjusted to the shape of your jaw and teeth to some degree. Those worn straight out of the box, however, can not be adjusted in any way.

Premade over-the-counter mouthguards may not be the most comfortable solution, as they are designed for a general mouth and bite shape and may not accommodate your specific needs and oral anatomy. As a result, even though they will still perform their protective function, this protection will likely not be optimal.

Another disadvantage of over-the-counter mouthguards is that they can cause jaw stiffness or rub against the soft tissue in your mouth, leading to sores because they are not fitted perfectly to your mouth.

That being said, wearing an over-the-counter mouthguard while playing sports is still preferable to having no protection at all. Over-the-counter mouthguards have the additional benefit of serving as a wallet-friendly option while you wait for a custom mouthguard to be manufactured.

Custom-made Mouthguards

A custom-made mouthguard is created using impressions of your teeth by a technician in a dental laboratory. Such a mouthguard fits in your mouth perfectly and provides an even distribution of force when an impact to the face occurs. Thus, a custom-made mouthguard provides more reliable protection than an over-the-counter option. Also, mouth sores, jaw stiffness, and other side effects of wearing a mouth guard are unlikely to occur when you opt for a custom-made option.

To get a custom-made mouthguard, you will need to visit your dentist at least twice: one visit is to take impressions of your teeth, and the second visit is when your mouthguard is ready. Typically, it takes between one to two weeks for your custom-made mouthguard to be prepared. The time will depend on how busy the dental lab and the technician are.

Get a Comfortable Custom-made Mouthguard at Samaritan Dental

Get a comfortable and reliable custom-made mouthguard that will protect your oral health while you enjoy your favorite sports activities. Schedule a consultation with an experienced dentist at Samaritan Dental today. We are looking forward to your visit to our dental office.