How important is a mouth guard for sports for an Etobicoke ON dentist?

Common are sports related injuries?

Being an athlete is more hazardous than you might expect. According to the Canadian Community Health Survey, about 4.27 million Canadians suffer some type of injury every year, and more than one third of those occur during sports and exercise. The risk is higher for children, with sports and exercise accounting for 66 percent of injuries in those between the ages of 12 and 19 years old. However, there is still a significant risk for adults, with 29 percent of all injuries related to sports and exercise in the 20 to 64 age group.

How does a mouthguard protect you from injury?

The most common reason people wear mouthguards is to protect their teeth. No one wants to have a tooth knocked out. Mouthguards shield the teeth in a thin layer of hard, protective material, preventing that from happening. However, that is far from the only benefit of sports mouthguards. Research has shown that these devices also reduce the risk of concussion. One study analyzed injury reports among young Canadian hockey players and found that those wearing mouthguard were two-thirds less likely to suffer a concussion.

What type of mouthguard is best?

A custom-made mouthguard provides better protection than one you buy in a store. That is not just our opinion. Researchers evaluated a wide variety of literature and information about mouthguards, and their findings were published in a 2005 article published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. They found that:

Off the shelf mouthguards provide little to no protection. They can even pose a risk because they fit so poorly that they can be inadvertently swallowed.
Boil-and-bite mouthguards are only slightly better than off the shelf varieties.
Old and worn custom mouthguards may become thin and therefore not withstand serious impact. However, they still prove better protection than the above options.
The best protection you can have is a custom-made mouthguard that uses high quality materials and is less than two years old.

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