Two dental tips for those who regularly play contact sports
Playing contact sports (like karate, boxing and rugby) can significantly increase your risk of sustaining an oral injury and potentially cracking or losing a tooth. Here are two tips which should help you to keep your teeth and gums in good condition if you regularly play a contact sport.
Wear a custom-made sports mouthguard
One of the most effective ways to protect your teeth and gums whilst participating in a contact sport is to wear a custom-made sports mouthguard during every single practice session and match.
Sports mouthguards are designed to absorb the impact of a blow to the mouth area before it can cause an oral injury. As such, by wearing this type of dental accessory whilst playing contact sports, you can prevent things such as tongue or gum lacerations as well as cracked or dislodged teeth.
However, it's important to note that a generic mouthguard will not offer the same level of protection that a custom-made one will. The reason for this is that the former will not precisely fit the exact contours of your teeth and gums, whilst the latter will.
Given this, it is worth asking your dentist to make a sports mouthguard for you. To do this, they will need to make a dental impression of your mouth, and then send the impression off to a lab to have the mouthguard made.
Whilst this may take some time and will most likely cost more than purchasing a generic mouthguard, it could save you a great deal of money and physical pain in the long run, by helping to protect your teeth and oral tissues from injury.
Learn how to handle dental emergencies
It is absolutely essential to learn how to cope with dental emergencies that could occur when you play contact sports, as the actions you take immediately after sustaining any kind of oral injury will play a determining role in how serious the injury turns out to be.
If for example, you are struck in the mouth during a match and as a result of this, one of your teeth falls out, the choices you make during the aftermath of this injury could determine whether or not the tooth can be saved.
In this situation, if you immediately place the tooth in a container of milk and go to the dentist within an hour of the incident, the tooth root will remain alive and your dentist should be able to refit the tooth.
Conversely, if you do not know how to handle this type of injury and you, therefore, allow the tooth to dry out or wait too long to go to a dentist, you will probably lose the tooth and have to get a dental implant fitted.
As such, it is worth taking the time to find out how to deal with dental emergencies, as doing so could help you to keep your teeth and thus enable you to avoid having to undergo complex and costly dental procedures.
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