Using mouth guards or mouth pieces, protect the mouth and teeth from injury during sporting events or intense activity. Learn how to fit a mouth guard and stay fit in this sports medicine video.
Find in sporting goods stores
Drop in boiling water for five seconds
Let cool for five seconds
Place in mouth & bite down
Thomas O'Brien, D.D.S. is the team dentist for the Houston Rockets NBA team.
DR. THOMAS O'BRIEN: Today, I'm here to talk to you about the prevention of mouth-related injuries. And basically, the best way to prevent mouth-related injuries is by wearing a properly fitting mouthguard. There are two basic types of mouthguards that are available. One is a stock-type of a mouthguard, which is better known as a boil-and-bite type, which you can buy in any of your sporting goods stores. Then you have your custom-fitting mouthguard which is available only through your local dentist. You can talk to your trainer about a program for custom-fitting mouthguards for your team if you don't have one in place. But we'll talk a little bit about the over-the-counter boil-and-bite type of mouthguard first. You can find them in any of your sporting goods stores. The cost can range anywhere from about a dollar and a half to about 10 dollars, I guess. They're very easy to make. Basically, you would take--each one has its own individual instructions with it. But basically you take it; you drop it in boiling water for approximately 5 seconds, then you take it out of the boiling water and you hold it and you shake the water off and you give it about 3 to 4 seconds, and then you put it into the player's mouth, and you have the player bite down into it and at the same time push his tongue or her tongue against the inside of the upper front teeth and suck in (makes sucking sound) with a sucking motion like that. You hold it for about 30 seconds and then you take it out and you immediately put it in cold water. Once you remove it from the cold water, it's basically made. So it's a very simple process and it's effective. But it's not nearly as effective as the second type of mouthguard which is the custom-fitting mouthguard, which is available only through your local dentist. It involves taking an impression in the dental office and then going back on a second visit for the actual mouthguard itself. The custom-fitting mouthguards have improve into not only feel a lot more comfortable for the player, but also the custom-fitting mouthguard helps to prevent concussions which is always a concern in any sport. So I would highly recommend the custom-fitting mouthguard over the boil-and-bite type that you buy in your local stores. This is an example of a custom-fitting mouthguard. It's for one of the players for the local football team but very, very closely adapted, very thin, much more comfortable for the player, so you can breathe better. And breathing is a big issue when you're running up and down the court or a football field. I would, once again, recommend the custom-fitting mouthguard versus the boil-and-bite, but the boil-and-bite is far better than wearing nothing.
