Custom Athletic Mouth Guards at Macomb County Dental Office
Hi, this is Dr. Antolak from thegentledentist.com in Macomb County, Michigan. Our phone number is 586-247-3500. What I’m going to talk about here is athletic mouth guards. It’s really important that you do use a mouth guard in sports because it not only protects the teeth but also prevents concussions.
If it’s a customized athletic mouth guard like this is right here, it is comfortable. You can talk with it, and if it’s more comfortable, it stays in the mouth, and increases the likelihood for people to use it, especially a child.
At our office at the Gentle Dentist in Shelby Township, Michigan we actually make custom mouth guards like this. First, we take an impression for the dental mouth guard, and then we make a plaster model out of it.
Then we use something that will actually suck that down, customize it, cut it out, and we form something like this.
If there is an impact on the front teeth like this, the mouth guard distributes the forces from that blow to the ridges. If you look here, this would fit above the teeth right in here. It also distributes it to the other teeth that are in that area. So, it takes the force and distributes it to the other areas, reducing that initial impact spot.
Another thing that’s really important about the thermoplastic mouth guard is that there is a thickness to it, about 3-4 millimeters. If you’re hit from behind, or from the jaw, normally what happens is that the force of the blow is transferred right up to the skull and into the brain. That’s how concussions take place. It’s this initial blow. Boom! It hits the jaw here and these teeth slam together. Then that whole thing jars the head and will cause a concussion.
The mouth guard significantly reduces the possibilities for concussions because it’s made out of thermoplastic, softer material and will dampen the amount of the blow.
If you play any type of contact sports, I recommend a mouth guard. Personally, I play a lot of hockey and I’ve made my own mouth guard which I’ve had for probably five years now and it’s great. It’s comfortable. I use it all the time and I feel safer.
For me, if I don’t have it in my mouth, I feel like something’s significantly missing. So don’t risk it. Don’t risk your teeth. Don’t risk the chance of losing a tooth in an athletic injury and don’t risk the possibility of concussion. So do yourself a favor and have an athletic mouth guard made. You know, if it’s not custom-made like this, there are some decent ones in the stores that are made. Under Armor makes a really good one. Some of these are boil and bite. You boil and bite it on and it works.
Custom Athletic Mouth Guards at Macomb County Dental Office
The best mouth guards though are the ones that are custom fabricated, like how I described. For us it’s now football season, and the beginning of hockey so you need to get yourself a mouth guard. So, if that’s the case, and you’re in the Shelby Township or the Macomb County area in Michigan, then give us a call 586-247-3500.