Not every sport requires its players to wear mouthguards. However, there are benefits in doing so even if you do not play contact sports. Whenever there is a chance of facial or head injury, you should wear a mouthguard. These help protect you from various injuries and can lessen the severity of impact injuries. There are three different types of mouthguards, though some are more beneficial than others. Madison Oral Surgery & Dental Implants can provide more details on your mouthguard options.
Benefits of Wearing Mouthguards
Many people mistakenly believe that mouthguards only need to be worn by athletes in high contact sports, such as football or soccer. However, these are beneficial whenever there is any chance for injury. Mouthguards provide many benefits including protecting soft tissues from laceration, preventing dental injuries, preventing severe damage to the jaw, lessening the severity of facial and neurological injuries, preventing neck injuries, and filling edentulous space (gaps) in the teeth. In addition, studies have found that athletes have more self-confidence when wearing mouthguards since they feel more protected.
Mouthguard Types
Mouthguards can be manufactured in three different ways; over-the-counter (OTC), boil and bite, and custom-fitted. OTC mouthguards are the cheapest option available to you, but with the lower price does come lower protection. These do not mold to your mouth at all so they may or may not protect the entirety of your teeth. Boil and bite mouthguards are a bit better, though still not your safest choice. Boil and bite mouthguards are also sold in stores and online like generic OTC mouthguards are. The difference is that these can be molded to your teeth after heating the mouthguard in hot water to soften it. We can also help you with this molding at our office. These will not be a perfect fit, though.
The safest mouthguard option is our custom-fitted mouthguards. Because these are manufactured at the dental lab and produced using an impression of your teeth, the protection they offer is much higher than any other type of mouthguard. These are more expensive than the other two types, but dental injuries can be extremely costly as well.
Custom Mouthguards
When you come in for a custom-fitted mouthguard, we will begin by taking an impression of your teeth. This is an empty shell that can be used to produce a mold (replica) of your teeth. These items are then used by the dental lab to produce a mouthguard that is custom-fitted to your teeth. This means that it will fit perfectly and fill in all of the gaps.
This process can take a couple weeks to complete. Once we receive your new mouthguard, we will schedule you for a fitting. We can make some minor alterations at our office to ensure that your new mouthguard feels comfortable in your mouth. In addition, you should also bring your mouthguard into your routine appointments so we can check that they still fit. Your teeth can shift over time, so it is possible that you will need more than one mouthguard in the future. For any questions or to receive a custom-fitted mouthguard, call Madison Oral Surgery & Dental Implants at (608) 274-0770 today.