Many of our young children, and even adults, receive unnecessary trauma to the head, neck, and temporomandibular joint region while participating in sports because they are not fully protected.

Most parents would not dream of sending their son or daughter out on a bicycle without a protective helmet. Most ski resorts now require helmets for skiing and snow boarding. Unfortunately what happens is, although the head may be protected, any type of severe blow to the head and neck will usually cause contact between the upper and lower jaw. This energy transferred through the teeth causes the breaking of teeth, concussions to the head and neck region, and damage to the TMJ.

The main purpose of an athletic mouthguard is to decrease the chance of concussion, protect the soft tissue and teeth from fracture and trauma, and provide a cushion for the temporomandibular joint. An appropriately constructed mouthguard can prevent the injuries that we see in our practice on a day-to-day basis. These athletic sport guards are designed in a variety of techniques and ways.

The object is to have an excellent fitting and well functioning sports athletic mouthguard. Generally speaking, the boil and bite techniques that had been used many years ago are unsatisfactory for the young child because it is difficult for them to speak, run, and talk with these apparatuses in their mouths. If the child is not comfortable with the athletic mouthguard, then compliance is difficult. The other problem with the boil and bite technique is that in most cases when the patient puts the mouthguard in, they close down all of the way, and actually the upper and lower teeth come in contact. This gives the patient a false sense of security, similar to wearing a seatbelt that does not fit properly.

In an accident, trauma to the head, neck, TMJ and concussions are likely to occur. A proper fitting athletic mouthguard is very simple to speak with, run with, and function with, and it is strongly suggested that people who are involved in moderate to heavy contact sports wear the appliances.

As general dentists for many years, we have seen hundreds of thousands of dollars of unnecessary damage to teeth where a very inexpensive athletic mouthguard would not only have protected the teeth, but avoided more severe problems to the temporomandibular joint, head, and neck region.