If you have children that play contact sports, you need to make sure to protect their teeth. While a face mask in football or baseball may keep them from getting directly hit by a ball or player, it doesn’t prevent their teeth from clashing together and breaking or chipping. At Beautiful South Shore Smiles in Marshfield, MA, we help fit kids for customized sports guards to protect their teeth.
A sports guard, also known as a mouth guard, is a dental device that protects teeth from physical contact or flying objects in sports. If your child, or you, play the sports on this list, then you need to wear one:
Along with protecting teeth, studies have shown that a properly fitted mouth guard can reduce concussions by stabilizing the head and reducing the impact of a hit while playing.
Although you can buy prefabricated or “boil and bite” sports guards at sporting goods stores, they can be more cumbersome than helpful. They don’t do as well protecting teeth as custom-fit mouth guards, and young players who wear them can have trouble breathing and speaking.
At Beautiful South Shore Smiles, we take impressions of children’s teeth to create custom-fit mouth guards for their needs. Our dentist takes the dental health of all our Marshfield, MA patients seriously, and wearing mouth guards can keep teeth from chipping, fracturing, dislodging from the mouth, and prevent jaw dislocations.
Since custom-fit mouth guards fit properly, you or your child will be able to breathe freely and speak while wearing a sports guard. It can also reduce the possibility of concussions if they get hit in the head while playing.
Mouth guards can last an adult for a year or more if they don’t play sports regularly. However, since children are still growing, they need to have their guards replaced every six months or so, especially if they are serious athletes.
Whether your child likes to skateboard or play soccer, protecting their teeth is vital to their oral health. Our dentist at Beautiful South Shore Smiles can help kids and adults in Marshfield, MA protect their smiles with custom-fit sports guards.