A sports guard is a flexible appliance worn during athletic and recreational activities to protect teeth from injuries or trauma. Our office supports using sports guards for children and adults in various sports activities.

A sports guard can prevent serious injuries such as broken teeth, neck injuries,  jaw fractures, and cerebral haemorrhage by helping to avoid situations where the lower jaw gets jammed into the upper jaw. Sports guards also reduce the incidence and severity of concussions.

Sports guards provide multiple benefits, including:

• Reduced chances of concussions
• Protection of dental structures from damage
• Protection from tooth loss

In sports activities, the participants are consistently at higher risk of encountering injuries by contacting other participants or hitting on hard surfaces. That’s why dentists recommend that athletes should wear a sports guard to prevent severe consequences.

Players participating in hockey, soccer, softball, football, martial arts, volleyball, basketball, squash, racquetball and wrestling should wear sports guards while practising and competing.

There are main 3 types of sports guards:

These sports guards are the least expensive and are easily available at most sports stores. Sometimes, because of being pre-formed, they often do not fit very well in the mouth. Such ill-fitted sports guards make it difficult to breathe and speak and are often bulky, loose and uncomfortable, offering very little protection from injuries.

The boil-and-bite sports guards are available at most sporting goods stores and may offer a slightly better fit. You can mould these guards according to your mouth shape and size by boiling them in water or biting into the warm plastic. These mouthguards or sports guards are available in many colours and flavours. The boil-and-bite mouth guards are also called universal sports guards.

The custom-made sports guards provide the best and most precise fit and are widely preferred. Our office, Ingersoll dental care, can design and construct a custom-fitted sports guard according to your teeth impressions.

Although custom-made sports guards are more expensive than other types, they offer the best protection, fit, comfort level and prevention of possible injuries to a great extent.  Moreover, because of being custom-made, it perfectly adapts to your mouth structure and enables the wearer to speak and breathe comfortably without any hindrance, making it a perfect choice for athletes.

These sports guards are also adaptable to orthodontic appliances such as braces or aligners, and the parts of the protector can be enhanced depending on the risks of injuries.

Without sports guards, the players are comparatively at higher risk of injuring or damaging their oral structures as well as their lips and face. The painful injuries caused by sports can become a reason for severe oral problems, and if they remain untreated for extended periods, they lead to overall health problems as well.

Sports guards can provide the utmost protection to your teeth by saving them from problems like breakage, fractures, and chips. These problems are reversible, but taking risks by not wearing a sports guard is not a good choice.

The sports guard acts as a cushion and protects your teeth from various harmful injuries. If a ball hits your face while you are wearing a sports guard, your teeth will not receive a crushing force. 

On the other hand, if a person is not wearing these protective guards, he may encounter an injury that results in knocking out his teeth. In such conditions, the original teeth can no longer be preserved, and dentists replace them in order to protect the functionality of surrounding teeth.

Sports guards effectively protect your jaws from injuries and fractures. Wearing a sports guard during physical activities also eliminates temporomandibular joint problems by keeping your jaws in the correct position. These protective guards also prevent issues like neck trauma and protect the soft tissues.

Studies show that sports guards are really significant in preventing concussions. A well-fitted mouth guard reduces the likelihood of sustaining concussive injuries because the padding between the maxilla and mandible can lessen the force of the mandible pushing up on the skull near the brain, which becomes a reason for a concussion.

Mouth guards cushion the force that could impact your face directly. In addition to minimising the risks of broken teeth, they also protect your lips, tongue, jaws, and cheek from various injuries. Sports guards usually cover your upper teeth and also provide protection to the soft tissues of your tongue, lips, and cheek lining. 

That’s why it is important to prevent all these oral issues by wearing sports guards. Moreover, in case you have encountered any of the above-mentioned dental problems during sports or other physical activities, you should get immediate treatment. 

At Ingersoll dental care, we also provide emergency dental care services to our clients to solve their issues immediately and in order to preserve their oral health. If you face any emergency dental situation, contact us right away and get your problems resolved by highly proficient and expert dentists.