Did you know that the most frequent type of injury that happens during sports is a dental injury? As you get your child ready for summer sports activities, a mouth guard should be at the top of your list of equipment to purchase. Not only do mouth guards in Crescent Heights protect the teeth, but they also provide protection for the jaw and mouth, which cannot be protected with regular helmets. Our team at Crescent Heights Dental Clinic offers custom mouth guards near you. Read more to learn about why mouth guards are a worthy investment.
School’s Out, and So Are Kids
There is nothing quite as satisfying as spending the summer months engaging in team activities, as long as one doesn’t end up toothless or with a broken jaw.
As mentioned above, dental injuries are the most common type of injury in sports; and as you prepare your child for their summer activities, you should ensure that they have an excellent mouth guard to protect them from such injuries. Mouth guards in Bridgeland work to protect the teeth, jaw, and mouth, providing your child with optimal protection from any harm to their face.
It may surprise you to find out that more than 200,000 oral injuries are prevented each year with the use of mouth guards. This number could substantially increase if coaches and parents implemented mouth guards as a necessity for their children when enrolling them in sports.
Types of Mouth Guards
There are three main types of mouth guards available:
● Athletic/stock mouth guards: These mouth guards are thin and flexible and can be purchased over-the-counter at almost any drugstore. However, these are made to be one-size-fits-all, and as a result, can be bulky and loose fitting, impairing speech, providing minimal protection, and even inhibiting proper breathing.
● Boil-and-bite mouth guards: These can also be found in most drugstores or sporting-good stores. To use these guards, you have to heat them in warm water and then make an impression in the guard with your mouth (or your child’s mouth). While this makes for a more precise fit than stock mouth guards, there is still room for error, and these may still feel uncomfortable in the mouth and not provide optimal protection.
● Custom-made mouth guards: These are made by your dentist in Crescent Heights and are the most effective, comfortable, and resilient mouth guards available. When you visit a dentist near you for a custom-made mouth guard, they will take impressions of your child’s mouth and send them to a dental laboratory, where the mouth guard will be manufactured using state-of-the-art technology.
How to Look After Your Child’s Mouth Guard
Here are some tips from our dentist in Bridgeland on caring for your child’s mouth guard:
● Keep the mouth guard away from hot water and sunlight to avoid melting
● Before and after each use, rinse the mouth guard with an antiseptic mouthwash and cold water
● Inspect the mouth guard for holes and tears
● Replace your child’s mouth guard at the beginning of each sports season
A mouth guard is one of the cheapest pieces of protective equipment available. So, before you let your child run free on the soccer field or gymnastics mat, make sure they have a mouth guard in. It is always important to ensure that our children have fun, but it is equally important to ensure their safety. At Crescent Heights Dental Clinic, we offer custom-made mouth guards to our patients. Please contact us to get your child a quality mouth guard today!