Studies indicate that more than 200,000 injuries to the mouth and jaw and over 5 million teeth are lost yearly from sports-related injuries. One answer to this situation is using a mouth guard when a danger to teeth and mouth is present.

Safety is a concern when children and adults participate in sporting activities but when should you wear protective gear for your mouth? Anyone who plays contact sports including football, soccer, boxing, basketball and others should consider using a mouth guard to reduce the chances of damage.

What many do not think of is that those engaged in non-contact sports like gymnastics, skateboarding, rollerblading and mountain biking, might want to consider wearing this gear as well.

The obvious advantage of using a mouth guard is to limit the mouth-related injuries to the participant’s lips, tongue, and soft tissues in the mouth. Mouth guards may help avoid chipped or broken teeth, or loss of teeth as well.

Remember that a bit of preventative planning can save money, time, teeth and injury to the mouth. Have a safe rest of the summer and enjoy the outdoors!

Tags: mouth guards, safety, summer activities

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2012 at 10:17 am and is filed under Beautiful Smiles, Children's Dental Care, Dr. Ashley Mann's Practice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.