Mouthguards for Suggested Sports
Most people want to stay fit and healthy, and team sports are a good way to get much needed exercise. What can team sports mean for your smile, though? Think of hockey players with gapped grins and you have a hint of the dental danger. Team sports, while offering camaraderie and enjoyable physical activity, are often contact sports. They employ rackets and sticks, bats and flying pucks. Badly thrown balls or sharply hit objects can go hurling right towards your mouth, and specifically your teeth (or your child’s teeth, usually right after they finished with braces).
Professional athletes commonly wear custom-fit mouthguards, but they are less common among amateurs, school athletes and weekend warriors playing a game of flag football. Nevertheless, contact is contact, teeth are teeth, and everyone wants to avoid hard objects making contact with their teeth. Even some sports we consider individual sports, such as skateboarding and surfing, pose a danger of getting teeth and tissues damaged, if not knocked out or seriously injured (such as biting through your tongue).
If you or a family member participate in contact sports, talk to the dentists at the Placerville Dental Group about getting a customized mouthguard. And keep smiling while you enjoy the following activities recommended for mouthguards by the American Dental Association:
- acrobatics
- basketball
- bicycling
- boxing
- equestrian
- football
- gymnastics
- handball
- ice hockey
- inline skating
- lacrosse
- martial arts
- racquetball
- rugby football
- shot put
- skateboarding
- skiing
- skydiving
- soccer
- softball
- squash
- surfing
- volleyball
- water polo
- weightlifting
- wrestling.
