If you play contact sports or are engaged in an activity where you could potentially damage your teeth, wearing a mouth guard for sports is a must for you. There are a few reasons you may not want to wear a mouth guard – you think that it isn't really necessary; you feel uncomfortable wearing it; it interferes with your speech and breathing. But there are much more serious reasons why you should wear a mouth guard for sports. Here is a list of the main ones.
1. To protect against tooth fractures
Accidents can happen during any physical activity and a mouth guard for sports can help limit the risk of teeth fractures. Sports related dental injuries account about 60% of emergency room visits each year. A properly fitted mouth guard may not only be comfortable to wear, but it will also reduce the potential of tooth fractures by cushioning against impact.
2. To protect against tooth displacement
If while playing baseball, for example, the ball hits hard right in your mouth and you are not wearing a mouth guard, it could break your tooth. In the best of the circumstances, you may only have a displaced tooth. Wearing a mouth guard will cushion your teeth in case an object hits your mouth as well as distribute the force over all your teeth so that one tooth doesn't receive a crushing blow.
3. To protect against knocking out a tooth
It would be a tragedy if you ended up with a large gap in your smile due to an accident that could have been prevented by wearing a mouth guard, wouldn't it?
4. To protect against jaw fractures
Mouth guards also help protect against jaw fractures. There is no much room for flexibility when your teeth contact each other when you sustain a blow to your head. A mouth guard provides a layer of flexible plastic between your teeth, acting as a padding to save your jaw from fracturing.
5. To protect against concussions
Although there is some debate on this subject, but some experts believe that a mouth guard can help prevents concussions. They explain that the mouth guard between the maxilla and mandible could lessen the force of the mandible pushing up on the skull near the brain, hence minimizing the chances of a concussion.
After reading this article, I hope you have understood the importance of wearing a mouth guard. If you find inconvenient wearing a mouth guard, know that the consequences of an injury to your teeth will be much more troublesome.
