Mouth guards are annoying pieces of rubber that make you mumble your words to your teammates, ruin your chirps to your opponents and are fun to chew on. Despite players wearing mouth guards, many are unaware of the factual reasons as to why we choose to wear them (for example, mouth guards may be annoying, but they do prevent injuries!). These small inventive pieces of equipment can come in handy when saving your chiclets from harm–but they have their limits. To help you decide if you need one or not, here are some myths and facts about mouthguards.
MYTHS:
Myth #1: Mouth guards help prevent concussions.
When it comes to mouth guards, no credible research has been done that proves mouthguards prevent concussions. Studies show that the use of helmets and protective gear such as cages, visors and mouth guards are highly recommended for preventing catastrophic head injuries and other traumatic head and facial injuries. However, the use of helmets and mouthguards will not prevent a concussion from occurring as they do not affect the movement of the brain within the skull and cerebrospinal fluid, so they are ineffective at reducing the forces on the brain that cause concussions. While mouth guards help reduce dental injuries, substantial evidence stating that mouthguards reduce concussions is still unavailable.
Related: Awareness Can Create Change: 6 Must-Know Facts About Concussions in Ice Hockey
Myth #2: A more expensive custom-fit mouth guard provides more protection than a simple boil and bite.
Custom mouth guards might be more expensive, but money can't buy your safety here, as there are no statistics to suggest that custom-fit mouth guards are better than boil and bite mouth guards. With this being said, there is a higher level of comfort with a custom-fit mouth guard than boil and bite, but it does not give you more protection.
Myth #3: Mouth guards are mandatory in all contact sports.
Mouth guards are only recommended in the United States. The National Federation of State High School Association suggests that mouth guards be worn for high school football, lacrosse, ice hockey, and field hockey players as well as for wrestlers. In Canada, sports mouth guards are mandatory for most minor hockey players, amateur football, amateur rugby, karate, taekwondo, lacrosse and amateur boxing. As for wearing a mouthguard worldwide, the only professional sport where sports mouth guards are mandatory is boxing.
Related: Awareness Can Create Change: 6 Must-Know Facts About Concussions in Ice Hockey
FACTS:
Fact #1: Mouth guards only prevent ortho-facial and skull injuries.
Research conducted by the American Dental Association (ADA) found that individuals are 60 times more likely to damage their teeth when not wearing a mouthguard while engaged in contact sports or vigorous physical exercise. This shocking fact alone illustrates the importance of protective mouth guards.
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Fact #2: You are a lot more likely to be injured when not wearing a mouth guard.
Proper use of mouthguards prevent more than 200,000 injuries to the mouth and teeth each year. That's a lot of reasons to wear one!
Fact #3: Mouth guards are now recommended in 29 sports.
While protective mouth guards were first used in the sport of boxing during the 1920s, the ADA now recommends their use in 29 different high contact sports and activities. Some of these include acrobatics, baseball, basketball, bicycling, field hockey, football, handball, ice hockey, lacrosse, martial arts, skateboarding, skiing, soccer, softball, volleyball, and wrestling.
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* Originally published on January 3, 2023, by Saroya Tinker
