Mouth Injuries From Sports

More than two million teeth are
accidentally lost each year from sports-related injuries

Mouthguards help prevent about 200,000 injuries in high school and college athletes. Many of theses athletes end up as part of the 15 million dental injuries and five million cases of traumatically lost teeth that occur every year. Because many students chose not wear a mouthguard for a variety of reasons:

• Some mouthguards may impair breathing or speech

• Not all schools and sports require the use of mouthguards for contact sports, including basketball and soccer

• Cost, although mouthguards come in a variety of price ranges

Athletes that wear properly fitted-mouthguards will find them to be comfortable, tear-resistant and resilient. Dr. Jeffery Hartman encourages all athletes especially those who participate in soccer and basketball to consider a type of custom-made mouthguard. Dr. Hartman is fervent about telling patients that there are benefits of wearing a mouthguard during sporting events and practices to:

• Help prevent injury to the mouth, teeth, lips, cheek and tongue

• Minimize injury

• Decrease the severity of the injury from hits or falls that could otherwise result in a fractured jaw

• Sports account for about 10 to almost 40 percent of those injuries (about 500,000) and mouthguards can help prevent those problems