You don’t have to be a professional boxer or rugby player to need a mouthguard. In fact you don’t need to be interested in sport at all, as mouthguards of different shapes and designs can be used for many different purposes. Whatever the reason you need a mouthguard, the staff at Dublin18 Dental Care will be able to give you advice and information before you make your decision.

Quite a number of the enquiries we receive about mouthguards are from patients who grind their teeth while asleep. This is not just an annoying habit, but something that can cause problems with oral health further down the line. Often people don’t even realise they are grinding their teeth, until a new partner mentions it or they decide to try and find out just why they always have such a sore mouth in the morning. Specially-designed mouthguards can be worn at night to prevent damage to both the teeth and jaw. Mouthguards are comfortable to wear and many people get used to wearing their mouthguard at night within just a few days.

Anyone who has had orthodontic work done at Dublin18 Dental Care near Leopardstown will be given a retainer to wear once their braces are removed to make sure that their newly-straightened teeth don’t slip back into their old positions. An Essex retainer is different to the usual style and is more like a mouthguard, made of moulded plastic, which is comfortable to wear and easy to remove and maintain. Patients who are given an Essex retainer should wear it every night and for at least four hours each day, to make sure that they keep their new smile looking as straight as possible.

However, we do still get many enquiries from sportsmen and women about mouthguards that will protect them during their chosen activity and a lot of the time it is parents who are concerned about the safety of a child who has just started playing rugby at school or taken up boxing. Any sport that involves significant physical contact could require participants to wear a mouthguard, in order to protect their teeth in the event of an accidental or, in the case of boxing, deliberate blows to the mouth.