In our office, it is important to remind our orthodontic patients about protection and wearing a mouthguard. While it may be common sense that wearing a mouthguard while playing sports is a good idea to avoid dental trauma, it may be also helpful to know a few interesting facts about them.

1) Give me the numbers: According to recent research, the following facts are true:
• Every year, there are about 15 million dental injuries, 5 million involved an avulsed tooth (knocked out) and a median of 26% were sports related.
• Males are twice as likely to be traumatized by a dental injury
• Children ages 7-10 are most likely to be injured.
• The National Federation of State High School Associations mandates mouthguards for only four sports: football, ice hockey, lacrosse, and field hockey. Wrestlers are mandated if they have fixed orthodontic appliances.

2) Those must be the sports with the most injuries, right? While these organized sports are top contenders for oral injury, they are not the worst contenders:
• In a study of 3,411 athletes, basketball was a top sport for orofacial injury for both males and females. In that study, none injured were wearing a mouthguard. Personally speaking, in the 20+ years I have been in practice, I have never had a patient with a dental injury from playing football, ice hockey or lacrosse. Those leagues mandate mouthguards for their players. The one sport that I see dental injuries in my patients every year is basketball. It is usually the same story: both team’s players are down at one end of the court trying to get the ball as it comes off the backboard and someone gets an elbow to the mouth. When I ask if the player was wearing a mouthguard, the answer has always been “No.”  Parents – please have your child wear a mouthguard for basketball, especially if they are in braces.
• For those younger children, baseball has the top incidence of trauma.
• Many dental injuries happen with non-contact, non-organized sports where people would not wear a mouthguard. We can vouch for the top recreational bicycle vs. pavement finding. Although not listed in this study, our office has a high incidence rate of “sibling-caused” dental injury.

3) Does it matter what type of mouthguard is worn with braces? Good question. There are several opinions on the boil-and-bite vs. stock-type mouthguard during orthodontic treatment.
• Stock-type mouthguards:
– Pros: fit over braces for the duration of the sport season without refitting. Allow for tooth movement during treatment time. These are the types of mouthguards we have in our office for patients.
– Cons: Must be held in place by biting, inhibiting speech. Due to their one-size-fits-most limitation, they can be more bulky and ill-fitting, causing the patient to not wear the mouthguard.
• Boil and Bite mouthguards:
– Pros: Better fitting for increased compliance, recommended by the Academy of Sports Dentistry.
– Cons: For patients in braces, as teeth move during treatment, the mouthguard needs to be frequently refit. We note an increase in breakage of braces due to forced fitting and removal of this type of mouthguard. These types can get stuck on the braces and break the braces off the teeth.
Source: www.dentalcare.com/en-us/professional-education/ce-courses/ce127/stock-mouthguards Accessed September, 5, 2019

Welcome to the first Blog for our new website. We hope to provide user-fed, question-based information on this page that you may not be able to find on a general search. For our first Blog, it may make the most sense to give you an idea why having a current web site is important to us.

1) Who are these people?

Unlike shopping online, in the orthodontic field, you want to know a little bit about the doctor and staff with whom you might be spending a decent portion of your time. On average, including pre-exam and retention, you could be in the practice for 4 years or more. People going to an orthodontic site want to know what qualifications the doctor has, what is the staff like, what technology they use and what the hours are.

2) We are referral based.

Unlike searching online for a recipe, approximately 85% of people in our practice were specifically referred to us by a dentist, friends, or a combination of both. Only about 10% of people are insurance-referred, and only 5% or so decide they do not like the smile they see in the mirror and Google us. When people get referrals, the first place they go to is the web site to get our phone number and address. Our web site also has a great “contact us” section, by location, so people can shoot a message to us at any hour that is convenient or request an appointment.

3) Information, please.

We will have personalized “how-to” videos uploaded this fall based off of patient/parent frequently asked questions. We want to highlight information, not opinion.

Stayed tuned for our upcoming blogs as we discuss fall sports, injuries, and the need for special types of mouthguards with braces.

Several weeks ago, we launched our new website and hope you like it. It is now more interactive and mobile device friendly. As part of the redesign of the site, we have now added a blog section. From time to time, we will be posting helpful information about orthodontic treatment and who knows what else!