Protect Your Smile During Sports

Keep Your Teeth Strong
November 20, 2017
Get Your Cameras Ready!
December 5, 2017

protect your smile

Many studies show that more than 1/4th of people play organized sports, which equates to millions of people. Sports not only increases your risk for injury, but your teeth can be harmed as well. Hits to the face are common and can cause dental emergencies such as broken or cracked teeth, knocked out teeth, mouth cuts, and more. Mouthguards are amazing appliances that can help athletes avoid injuries while playing sports. There are many ways to avoid dental emergencies and services we can offer you if your smile is injured while playing a sport. Find out how you can better protect and preserve your smile while enjoying the activities you love!

 

Be Conscious About Your Oral Health

How well you take are of your teeth say a lot about how well you take care of your overall health. Not only do you have to be mindful of brushing and flossing your teeth each day, but you also have to remember to visit the dentist at least twice a year for dental cleanings and comprehensive exams. All of these habits will help ensure that you protect your smile and keep your teeth healthy through the years. However, you must also think about your oral health when participating in sports.

 

Sports injuries are one of the main causes of dental emergencies. A dental emergency includes issues such as broken, chipped, or cracked teeth, toothaches, a cut lip, gum, or cheek, a knocked out tooth, and a broken wire or part of your braces. Studies have found that about 3 out of 4 families in the U.S. have children that play an organized sport. That is about 45 million children that play sports. There are fewer people that play sports as they grow into adults, but there are still millions that do as adults.

 

Protect Your Smile with a Mouthguard

One of the best ways to protect your smile during sports is with a mouthguard. There are several different types of mouthguards:

  • Stock Mouthguards – These are guards that are pre-packaged and ready to wear. You can buy them at many supermarkets. However, they are one-size-fits-all even though every mouth is different. You take a risk on sustaining a mouth injury because of all the wiggle room and space these guards leave you where teeth could be hurt.
  • Boil and Bite Mouthguards – A mouthguard should fit snug to your teeth in order to really provide you with the protection you need during sports. A step up from stock guards are boil and bite guards. You can buy these at many sporting goods stores. You build the guard, then place the guard in your mouth where it will then shape around your teeth. The fit is better than stock guards, but not always accurate.
  • Custom Guards – Your best option is to invest in a custom mouthguard. We can take impressions of your teeth and provide you options for a mouthguard made just for you. This is the best way to protect your smile without any wiggle room for injury to occur.

 

Fixes for Broken Teeth

Sometimes accidents happen. There are thousands of dental emergencies each year, and a large percentage of them stem from sports injuries. However, many patients break their teeth or have dental emergencies due to poor oral hygiene habits that allow tooth decay or gum disease to weaken their smile. You can protect your smile with good oral hygiene. When that fails, or an injury occurs, we have the following services to help restore your smile:

  • Dental Implants – This is a service we provide when a tooth has been lost or knocked out. If we can’t restore the natural tooth to its normal position, we can provide a dental implant. We make a customized tooth attached to a post in your jaw that lasts many years.
  • Dental Bridges – Similar to a dental implant, we can restore several teeth when there are teeth missing in one area of the mouth. We place dental implants on both ends of the missing row of teeth and use custom-made teeth to bridge the gap between your dental implants.
  • Tooth-Colored Fillings – Instead of metal fillings, we can remove your cavities and provide tooth-colored fillings in their place. No one has to know you even had a cavity!

 

Invisalign Treatment Helps

When thinking about your oral health, you also have to take braces into consideration with sports. If you are a person that is heavily involved in sports and you need braces, you may want to consider investing in Invisalign treatment as your straightening choice. Invisalign is an option that wasn’t available to people years ago, but it’s one of the best straightening options if you want to have more freedom with your mouth. Traditional metal braces and other forms of orthodontics could potentially cause injury to your mouth if you were to be hit in the face. Protective mouthguards can help prevent injuries, or you could use a straightening option that works well with your needs.

 

Invisalign is a series of transparent aligners that allows the wearer the freedom to remove the appliance to clean it, eat, play sports and more. If you wear Invisalign, you can simply remove your straightening appliance for your game or practice, then put it right back in your mouth right after. There is no hassle and no need to worry about an injury from your braces. Invisalign is a very popular orthodontic choice amongst teenagers and adults. We can provide you with your own custom-made Invisalign treatment if you are an adult or teenager.

 

A Strong, Healthy Smile

You want to always protect your smile so that it can stay beautiful for decades to come. That means you want to practice good oral hygiene on top of protecting your pearly whites with mouthguards. The American Dental Association recommends brushing the teeth at least twice a day to keep them healthy and strong. You must also floss each day to get food that has become trapped. If you would like to know what mouthguards we recommend and receive tips to protect your smile during sports, call Family & Cosmetic Dentistry of the Rockies today at (970) 267-0993!