The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) congress recently passed a motion making it mandatory for juvenile players to wear mouth guards from the start of 2013. This rule will come into effect for senior player from the start of the following year. According to the IDA (Irish Dental Association), Ireland has one of the highest rates of sports related dental injuries in all of Europe. Unsurprisingly, they have shown great support for the ruling. Of course, this is only the tip of the issue; Mouth guards may now be obligatory, but the one size fits all mouth guard sold in most sports shops are the least effective of the guards available and ‘boil and bite’ guards aren’t a huge improvement. Sadly, it is these store-bought guards that make up 90% of the mouth guards used.

Custom fitted guards

The summer may be upon us, but it won’t be long till until the ‘back to school’ signs are up in the shops. If you your child will be playing contact sport and you really want to protect their pearly whites, then you might want to investigate in custom fitted mouth guards. One common complaint about stock guards is their impact on speech; as these guards lack retention, they must constantly be bitten down on so that they are held in place. This can lead to kids and adults alike altering the guards so that they are better held in place. Often these alterations completely negate what little protection the guards offered in the first place. Custom guards, in contrast, are custom fitted to the wearer’s teeth and will provide the highest degree of both comfort and protection that a mouth guard is currently capable of.

The process

Having a mouth guard fitted is a simple process which we at Dublin18 Dental Care near Dundrum are happy to provide. We will simply take an impression of your teeth and send it on to a dental lab. It really is as easy as that!