Sportsguards: Protecting Your Smile in the Game

Sportsguards, also known as mouthguards, are essential protective gear for anyone participating in sports or activities with a risk of facial impact. Here's a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about them –

Sports can offer numerous health and social benefits, but they can also lead to mouth-related injuries, which are among the most common in both youth and adult sports. At East Peak Dental in South Lake Tahoe, we encourage our patients to embrace sports while prioritizing safety. That's why we recommend customized sports guards to protect your teeth during play.

Most Common Dental Injuries In Sports

Broken Teeth: Those front teeth may improve the look of our smile, but their front and center location makes them highly vulnerable to breakage. Falls, balls to the face, and collisions occur in most sports. Having front teeth chipped or broken in half is a common consequence.
Knocked Out Teeth: One step worse than broken teeth, knocked out or avulsed teeth, also occur in sports. Be sure to read up on what to do before this happens, as time is of the essence when a tooth comes out.
Tooth Intrusion: The opposite of being knocked out, an intrusion is a tooth being shoved into the gums and bone. A tooth intrusion is more common with baby teeth when children’s bones are still softer.
Fractured Tooth Root: A fractured root may not be immediately apparent, but can result in an infection at the root site.

Protecting Your Teeth With A Sportsguard

You can add a layer of protection to your teeth by wearing a mouthguard or sports guard. They are made of a silicone-type material that both protects your teeth and spreads an impact across your teeth, decreasing the brunt to any one tooth.

There are both store-bought varieties and customized varieties of mouthguards. Store-bought can include a one size fits all version and a boil-and-bite version. The sports guards we create are customized to fit your athlete's mouth. We recommend having it made for one significant reason because we want the patient to actually wear it. Customized sportsguards are made to fit the patient. They won’t be bulky or uncomfortable because it was made with you in mind.

Our mouthguards are created using a silicone-type material. It will provide some firmness, but be pliable. In addition to protecting teeth, some studies have found that wearing a mouthguard while playing sports can decrease the severity of a concussion as it takes some of the impacts.

Caring For Your Sportsguard

Caring for your sportsguard is simple but does require some thought. You simply rinse the device before and after use. Additionally, you will want to be aware of where you leave it. It shouldn’t be left in cars or where temperatures can get high.

If you or a loved one is in need of a sportsguard, call East Peak Dental at (775) 580-7410 to schedule an appointment today.