Mouth Guards and Sports
Many sports include some risk of physical injury, and included in that risk is the chance that teeth will be injured. The primary means of preventing such dental injuries are mouth guards. Also called “sports guards”, or “athletic mouth protectors”, these devices are important protection for competitors in many sports. Where the risk of mouth injury is particularly high sports governing bodies will often require such protection.
Older hockey fans will remember the toothless captain of the Philadelphia Flyers, Bobby Clarke, as the picture boy for dental injury in hockey, but other sports such as baseball, football, boxing, rugby, lacrosse are also sources of dental trauma.