06 Sep 4 Reasons To Wear A Mouthguard While Playing Sports
Contact sports present significant risks to your oral health if you don’t take good care of your smile while engaging in them. Patients who don’t protect their smiles while playing sports can face significant consequences of facial trauma, which may warrant treatment by an oral surgeon.
The most effective way to prevent the effects of facial trauma is to wear protective headgear and a custom-designed mouthguard that is created to fit your unique mouth structure. Such an appliance offers superior protection and better comfort, so that your mouthguard doesn’t interfere with your performance on the field or court.
Dangers Of Leaving Your Mouth Unprotected During Contact Sports
Playing contact sports can often result in hard hits to the teeth, jaw or other facial structures. Depending on the force of the contact, such hits can have serious effects on your smile. These are just four of the potential consequences of playing contact sports without a mouthguard.
- Broken or knocked out teeth
- Fractures of the jaw or other facial bones
- Lacerations of the soft oral tissues
- Concussions
If you experience any of these issues, you’ll likely end up on the sidelines for an extended period of time. In fact, many of those injuries can require an intervention from an oral surgeon to repair the damage.
Fortunately, you can reduce your risk of those four negative outcomes if you wear a custom-designed mouthguard while playing contact sports. There’s a compelling case to wear a mouthguard if you want to avoid those four concerns.
Why A Custom-Fitted Mouthguard Is Your Best Choice
Wearing a mouthguard is valuable, but it’s not like any old mouthguard will do. Your best option is a mouthguard designed to match your unique specifications. You can get such an appliance from a dental provider.
Patients may be tempted to turn to the boil-and-bite mouthguards that they can buy off the shelf at the local sporting goods store, but such appliances are unlikely to give you optimal protection from facial trauma. There’s a large margin of error, resulting in a mouthguard with a poor, uncomfortable fit.
If you want superior protection while you are playing a contact sport or engaging in any other activity with a high risk of facial trauma, consider getting a getting a custom-designed mouthguard. For more information, contact our team at Central Oklahoma Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Associates.