Mouth Guards

What are mouth guards?

Mouth guards are dental accessories that are worn to protect your teeth and surrounding structures. They are made from plastic material that fits tightly into your mouth yet are strong enough to absorb the shock that comes from the forces encountered during contact sports.

Benefits of wearing a mouthguard

1. Your teeth are protected
2. You can play contact sports without having to worry about injuring your teeth
3. Unwanted extra costs of dental treatment are eliminated by using this preventive measure
4. Some health insurance companies encourage you to wear mouth guards and support you by allowing a claim for a mouth guard per year per child.

When to wear a mouth guard

Mouth guards are to be worn during all types of contact sports. The aim of wearing the mouth guard is to protect your teeth and surrounding structures from injury. Mouth guards can be worn by both adults and children, as long as the aim is to protect your teeth from unwanted injury.

Common sense tells us that they should be worn during contact sports such as football, boxing or hockey, but the Australian Dental Association advocates their use in a much more diverse set of sports and activities. These include trampolining, cricket, soccer, basketball and skateboarding among other activities. Although the risk of injury may be lower in these activities, they do happen, which could result in an unsightly, painful outcome, and require a lengthy and costly process to fix the situation.

What is a mouth guard made of

The mouth guard is made from a type of high quality plastic material. What we do first is take some measurements of your teeth and jaws. These measurements will ensure that your mouth guard has a customized fit and hence there will be less chance of it falling off because it will fit perfectly. After the measurements are done, our dental technologist makes the appliance and uses a color of your choice. After the fabrication, we then set up an appointment to fit it into your mouth and give you instructions on how to wear it and also how to look after it.

Taking care of your mouth guard

Taking good care of your mouth guard is very important. You need to keep it clean so that food particles do not stick to it. If you do not brush and clean your mouth guard, you will be at risk of getting dental infections. Also, when the mouth guard is not in your mouth, you will have to keep it in a protective casing. Whenever you stop to have a drink, or have some food, always remember to put the mouth guard inside the protective case. You must avoid taking hot beverages with your mouth guard because it may alter the fit due to the melting capacity of the plastic that we use to make it.

A well fitting, dentist made mouth guard can be looked upon as an insurance policy against these adverse outcomes. Some health insurance companies encourage you to wear mouth guards and support you by allowing a claim for a mouth guard per year per child.

The mouth guards we make come in a variety of colours, and we can also make them in your favourite footy teams colours!