Custom mouth guards needed for contact sports

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Athletes participating in contact sports who want to keep their teeth would be smart to invest in a custom mouth guard, according to a dentist who's treated college and pro athletes as well as high-schoolers.

"There's a big difference in types of mouth guards out there," says Dr. Derric Desmarteau, a general dentist in private practice in Piedmont, California. "Most of the mouth guards that are used by student athletes or high school kids or even younger are the over-the-counter type." These include stock mouth guards and the so-called "boil and bite" type, which the user places in boiling water and then molds to his or her mouth.

Custom guards, which are fitted by a dentist and cost from $40 to $90, offer superior protection, says Desmarteau. Frequently, he noted, the non-custom versions make it difficult for wearers to breathe and talk. Users may then modify them in ways that make them less protective or simply not wear them at all, he said.

Desmarteau's recommendations on the use of mouth guards in contact sports are published in the current issue of Current Sports Medicine Reports.

According to the National Youth Sports Safety Foundation, 3 million teeth are knocked out annually in youth sporting activities, he notes. In a 2000 report, the Surgeon General stated that nearly all of these lost teeth could have been saved if the young athlete was wearing a mouth guard.

There are two types of custom mouth guards, vacuum formed, which will last for a year, and pressure laminated, which hold up for several years, Desmarteau said. The pressure-laminated type also allows for a better fit, he adds, although both are "vastly superior" to ready-made mouth guards.

For 40 years, he notes, there has been continuing controversy over whether mouth guards can protect athletes from concussions by acting like a kind of shock absorber for the skull. Evidence has been anecdotal, he adds, while studies looking at the issue have been flawed.

"There still needs to be better controlled studies to see if mouth guards can prevent concussions." In the meantime, the fact that they can protect teeth is enough reason to use them, according to Desmarteau.

In his report, he points out that the American Dental Association recommends them for sports, ranging from basketball to field hockey to skydiving, and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry urges that they be used for all contact or collision sports.

SOURCE: Current Sports Medicine Reports, October 2006.