Cuts, bruises and broken bones heal. Dental injuries are forever.
Playing sports without a mouthguard is the equivalent of driving without a seatbelt. Accidents happen – make sure you are protected when it does. Hockey, soccer, baseball, ultimate frisbee, basketball, karate, and countless other sports have a long history of sending their participants to the nearest dentist, often tooth or pieces in hand. An investment in a mouth guard can save you the pain, expenses, and many hours in the dental chair.
Mouthguards are made from a durable rubber than is comfortable to wear and helps reduce and dissipate the forces of a sudden impact to the teeth. This force can be external, such as from a hockey puck or stick, or it can be from the top teeth hitting the bottom teeth as a result or a fall, hit, or quick change in direction.
Are store bought mouth-guards good?
The short answer is No. Much like a poor fitting helmet allows for too much movement to be effective, poor fitting mouth-guards will not protect your teeth as well as a custom fitted mouthguard. Let’s analyze why.
1) One size does not fit all. Neither does Small, Medium, or Large adequately describe the shape of your jaw and your teeth. Unless the store allows you to open and try it in your mouth you may realize that the mouthguard you bought doesn’t even fit your teeth. If your mouth-guard does not fit, you will not wear it. And if you don’t wear it, it will not help you. Additionally, a poorly fitted mouthguard will not stay on your teeth without constantly biting down. This may put uneven pressure on your teeth, causing pain or shifting your teeth.
2) Bite and Boil. Thermoplastic moldable mouthguards appear to address the above limitations of a generic mouthguard. However, when molding the mouthguard you may be biting too hard or too softly. As a result, the thickness of the rubber will not be uniform, resulting in thin areas which will not be as protective to some teeth. Additionally, the thermoplastic rubber will actually deform, breakdown and wear out faster from the warm mouth environment and as that happens the mouth-guard’s fit becomes poorer and less protective.
To summarize, the only appeal of a store bought mouth-guard is the price. But is it even worth it?
Considering all the disadvantages of store-bought mouthguards – the poor, uncomfortable fit, questionable protection, and need to replace more often, the advantages for a custom made dental mouthguard becomes obvious. An investment in a custom made dental mouthguard will save you 10-20x the amount from fixing or replacing broken teeth, not to mention the pain and chair time. What are your teeth worth to you?