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Sports are great for your physical and mental health. If you’re someone who plays regularly, you’re probably aware of how a good game can lift your spirits and uplift your mood.
However, there are certain serious risks involved with playing sports that you can’t ignore. Every year, nearly 8.6 million Americans suffer injuries while playing games. Most of these injuries are muscular, fractural, and dental.
Protecting your pearly whites while playing sports is crucial for maintaining your oral health. If you fail to shield your teeth during sports, you risk losing them. What may seem like a slight tooth injury like getting your teeth chipped can lead to more severe dental issues in the long run.
Here’s a list of everything you can do to protect your teeth from damage while playing sports.
Use a mouthguard
You must wear a mouthguard while playing contact sports such as soccer and hockey. It’s designed to cover your teeth to shield them from dental trauma.
The American Dental Association identifies three types of mouth guards that can be used during contact and collision sports: stock ready, mouth-formed, and custom-made mouthguards.
Stock ready mouth guards are the ones that you can find at a sports shop easily. But they’re also the least effective because they come in limited shapes and sizes.
Mouth-formed mouthguards adapt to the user’s mouth once they’ve been boiled and place in their oral cavity. Your dentist may help you with the final molding of the piece, but these are also readily available at sports shops.
Custom-made mouthguards are the most expensive and the most effective of all types of mouthguards. These are custom-made according to the user’s mouth in a laboratory or a dental office and provide the best fit to a person’s mouth.
Wear a helmet
If you don’t play contact sports but are a cyclist or a skater, you’re at risk of getting a tooth injury by falling and/or slipping.
To protect yourself from damage during a solo sport, make sure that you’re wearing a helmet with a cage that will protect your face. Choose the right fit to make your playing session comfortable.
Be prepared to deal with dental emergencies
If you suffer dental trauma while playing, you should have the knowledge and resources to deal with it on an emergency basis. First and foremost, you should examine the injured area carefully to see what has happened.
To stop the bleeding, apply pressure on to the area and ice it. If the pain is intolerable or if you’ve lost a tooth, seek emergency dental help immediately. Timely treatment can save your teeth.
At West Hills Smiles, we offer dental care services such as general dentistry and emergency dental care at Woodland Hills, CA. Contact us directly at 818-346-4303 in case of an emergency or visit our website for more information.
