mouth guards

Protect your teeth from injury and impact

If you or your child participate regularly in sports, a mouth guard is a good investment to protect and cushion teeth from potential injury and trauma. Mouth guards help reduce the risk of broken teeth from impact, as well as injury and bruising to your face, tongue, jaw, and lips.

While we typically think of wearing mouthguards for contact sports like hockey and football, any athlete can injure their mouth and teeth. Mouth guards should be an essential piece of equipment for any athlete.

Different types of mouth guards

• Custom: these mouth guards are custom-fitted to your mouth by your dentist, offering the best protection and most comfortable fit
• Boil and Bite: these are the kind of mouth guards you can buy at sporting good stores, and involve softening them in boiling water to help them mold to your teeth a little better
• Stock: inexpensive, pre-formed stock mouth guards are a good budget buy as they’re better than no protection, but they aren’t made to fit your mouth and often make breathing and talking more difficult

When you’re not using your mouth guard, it’s important to care for it properly, especially a custom-fit one. Rinse it before and after you use it with your toothbrush and toothpaste, and then clean it weekly with soap and warm water. Store it in a vented container out of reach of pets, heat, and sun.