Play Hard, Protect Your Teeth
The statistics are clear that sports and recreation can lead to dental injury: more than 3 million teeth will be knocked out in youth sporting activities this year.1 However, the evidence is also clear that wearing a mouth guard can help to prevent dental injury: an athlete is 60 times more likely to suffer harm to the teeth when not wearing a mouth guard.2
Mouth guards can prevent damage to the teeth, jaw and inside of the mouth by buffering the impact of a fall or blow to the head. They are mandatory for youth ice hockey, football and lacrosse, but their use shouldn’t be limited to just those sports. It’s important to use a mouth guard during any activity where there is a strong chance for contact with other participants or hard surfaces, including basketball, baseball, wrestling, bicycling, in-line skating and martial arts.
With all they can do to protect the teeth, mouth guards are one of the most effective pieces of protective equipment in sports!
Learn more about mouth guards:
1 Lollar, Jennifer. “Sports dental injuries are no laughing matter.” (2011, August 22). University of Alabama Birmingham News. http://www.uab.edu/news/latest/item/1577-sports-dental-injuries-are-no-laughing-matter
2 Journal of the American Dental Association. “Protecting Teeth with Mouthguards.” (2006, December). American Dental Association. http://www.ada.org/sections/scienceAndResearch/pdfs/patient_69.pdf