Your smile is practically priceless. It adds sparkle to your personal appearance, helps you eat, speak, and express your feelings. At Dr. Mitchell Pasenkoff's dental office in Norfolk, VA, we offer our patients important smile protection during sports. It's called the mouth guard. Like your smile, it's so valuable.
What happens during sports
Sports are risky, particularly if they're contact sports such as football, hockey, basketball, wrestling, martial arts, skateboarding, and baseball. These activities involve person-to-person collisions, high-speed maneuvers, blows to the head, falls, and other potentially damaging contacts.
Even simple teeth clenching as you run or play tennis increases the pressure on your teeth, bone structure, and gum tissue, causing excessive wear and tear. Add intricate and rough-textured orthodontic braces, and you have a recipe for oral lacerations and dental displacement.
Wearing a mouthguard
A customized acrylic mouthguard from your dentist in Norfolk, VA, offers your child (or you) maximum protection against dental injury. That means reduced chances of cuts to the lips, tongue, and face, fewer cracked, chipped, or knocked-out teeth, orthodontic braces and restorations which remain intact, and fewer dislocated or broken jaws. Though simple, a properly fitting mouth guard affords the athlete substantial cushioning against the physical forces of contact sports.
Unfortunately, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research reports that only a limited number of youngsters wear athletic mouthguards every time they play. Also, school football players are non-compliant with only 3/4 of these young people donning a quality mouthguard each time they hit the field.
How Dr. Pasenkoff can help
This Norfolk, VA, dentist recommends a custom-made mouthguard every time a child engages in sports. Most kids protect the upper teeth only with this snugly fitting acrylic appliance while patients with braces on bottom teeth may require an additional appliance.
Dr. Pasenkoff will assess your youngster's needs and take oral impressions. The mouth guard will be designed specifically for your child's mouth--and no one else's. With a growing child, a mouth guard lasts and retains proper fit for about one season of play. Then, you should replace it with another customized guard.
Play safely
A custom-made mouthguard preserves the form and function of that precious smile. So, encourage team play, and come see Dr. Mitchell Pasenkoff in Norfolk, VA, about this simple and effective appliance. Phone for a consultation: (508) 528-5351.