Your dentist recommends that a patient wear a mouthguard during all sporting activities. High-risk activities like martial arts and collision sports are no-brainers but non-contact sports like Ice Skating and Gymnastics also require mouthguards.
One bad spill during a non-contact sport could still mean losing a tooth. It’s important to know as adults but your dentist also recommends equipping children who play sports with mouthguards.
What kind of options do you have to choose from?
There are three kinds of mouthguards that a patient can choose from:
- Custom Made – Some Dentist will offer to make custom mouthguards, these aren’t cheap but offer the best protection as they’re individually crafted for the wearer.
- Boil and Bite – Perhaps the most common mouth guard options theses require a patient to boil the mouthguard, making it soft and then biting down to imprint their teeth into the guard. This is a semi-customized mouth guard as the exact sizes can only be estimated.
- Stock – There mouthguards come preformed and are the most inexpensive method. These mouthpieces are often the least comfortable and can make breathing difficult depending on how they fit in the patient’s mouth.
