How Wearing a Mouthguard Protects Your Smile?

There never has been a year where Pearland Family Dentistry hasn’t told their patients about the benefits of wearing a mouthguard when participating in contact sports. However, our advice to them comes after they have sustained treatable dental injuries.

If they had a mouthguard on, the extent of the dental injury could have greatly minimized. Since Pearland dentists aim is to promote the use of a mouthguard during contact sports, we want to provide our patients with advice before they hit the sports field.

The Importance of Wearing Mouthguards

- When you want to protect your head, you wear a helmet.

- When you want to protect your ribs, you wear a rib protector.

- When you want to protect your hands, you wear gloves.

And the list goes on and on…

We ask you why you don’t wear a mouthguard? Isn’t your smile just as important as the rest of your body? Unless you are going for that toothless grin, you will want to wear a mouthguard to protect that smile of yours. Here are five excellent reasons why you should not disregard wearing a mouthguard:

§  It acts as a cushion for your teeth during impact.

§  It protects your jaw joints from sustaining injuries.

§  It prevents soft tissue injuries.

§  It helps avoid jaw and neck injuries.

§  It may help decrease the occurrence of a concussion.

Getting any of the dental injuries mentioned above are painful, and nowhere a pleasant experience. If you want to keep on smiling confidently, you need to start by maintaining the smile by wearing a mouthguard. You can choose from two types of mouthguards.

The Custom Mouthguard

To design a dental mouthguard, the dentist will take a mould of your teeth. Since the mouthguards are tailor-made using your exact measurements, they are more effective in preventing dental injuries to your jaw and teeth.

The Over the Counter Mouthguards

You can buy over the counter mouthguards from a pharmacy, but it will do little to protect your jaw and teeth from injury, as they will not be of your exact measurements and might be uncomfortable to wear.

Which One Do Professional Dentists Recommend?

Professional dentists do not recommend that athletes purchase over the counter mouthguards, as the risk of injury is still present. Sports players should invest in a custom mouthguard, especially if they are part of a sports team in school. If you play the following sports, you need a mouthguard:

          §   BMX Bike Riding

§  Skateboarding

§  Horse Riding

§  Soccer

§  Football

§  Squash

§  In-line Skating

§  Lacrosse

§  Basketball

§  Baseball

§  Softball

Do not forget to clean your mouthguard with cold and soapy water after use, as you do not want your mouthgaurd to cause you an infection. Once it is disinfected, store it in dry and clean plastic container, taking it out when it’s time to play your next big game.

Are you looking to get a custom mouthguard or has the damage already been done to your smile? Pearland Family Dentistry can design a mouthguard for you and help restore your smile. Make an appointment with one of our qualified dentists, so we can help you preserve your smile.

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Save Your Smile, before It’s Too Late

Your smile has the ability to light up the room, but for how long it can do that depends on your habits. As Pearland Family Dentistry tells its patients that in the end, it is their responsibility to ensure that their smile never disappears. As dentists, we want our patients to be proud of their smile and not afraid to bare their teeth in pictures. Therefore, we encourage them and their family members to follow healthy teeth cleaning habits. The habits to save your smile are:

1. Do Not Brush Your Teeth too Roughly or Fast

By brushing your teeth too fast, you are doing the opposite of brushing; you are scrubbing your teeth as if it is the surface of a floor. Doing it excessively and everyday will cause the enamel to wear away, resulting in your teeth becoming overly sensitive. This practice of brushing will also cause your gums to diminish. Brush your teeth using a soft or medium toothbrush using firm strokes. 

2. Do Not Brush Your Teeth after Drinking and Eating Acidic Food and Drinks

Acidic food plays a significant part in eroding the enamel. You need to wait at least half an hour to brush your teeth.

3. Do Not Brush Your Teeth Regularly

Pearland dentists are a strong advocate of brushing your teeth regularly, but it is the excessive brushers we fear for the most. You only need to brush twice or thrice each day after consuming your main meals to remove the buildup of plague.

4. Neglecting to Brush the Entire the Surfaces of the Teeth

Cleaning the front surface of the teeth is just as important as cleaning the back and upper surface of the teeth. Yet, people neglect to clean those surfaces for reasons unknown to us. Our guess is that they might in a hurry in the morning, and who is going to look at the inside of their mouth? A dentist will have to eventually and they will tell you that the cavities and the buildup of plague are all associated with failing to clean the entire surfaces of the teeth.

5. Neglecting to Floss

You need to make a habit of flossing your teeth after eating the main meals of the day. The fine thread of the floss will reach places in your teeth where a bristle of a brush can never reach. It will remove scarps that cause tooth decay due to the buildup of plague.

6. Neglecting to Pay Attention to Bleeding Gums

When you see blood coming out of your mouth as you brush or after you rinse your mouth, it is an issue that you need to take seriously. Do not brush it off, telling yourself, you will deal with it later, as the more you ignore, the worse it will get. Next thing you know, your dentist is telling you that you have gum disease with you nodding your head saying that you spotted the signs earlier on, but failed to act on it.

Pearland Family Dentistry offers Restorative Dental Care for people who want to renew their smile and never repeat the same mistakes again.

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