{"id":975,"date":"2019-06-17T16:01:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T16:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=975"},"modified":"2019-06-17T16:01:39","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T16:01:39","slug":"attention-athletes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/attention-athletes-2\/","title":{"rendered":"ATTENTION ATHLETES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I was at a\ncontinuing education seminar last week and one of the topics being discussed\nwas mouthguards. Although it seems basic, and you would think that everyone who\nshould be wearing one does, this is far from the case. I still see far too many\nsports related dental injuries in every season which could have been prevented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any sport that\npresents the chance of contact or collision with another person, object, or\nsurface can potentially cause injury to teeth, jaws, and oral soft tissue.\nThese sports include, but are not limited to, football, baseball, basketball,\nsoccer, hockey, field hockey, pond hockey, boxing, lacrosse, biking, inline\nskating, and skateboarding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teeth get in\nthe way. Other than your nose, front teeth are \u201cout there\u201d and your lips only\nprovide minimal protection. For example, a student I saw this past spring from\na local private school was playing squash. Squash is a non-contact sport but\nthe game is played in close proximity to another player with a swinging\nracquet. The student I treated had been hit in the mouth with the other\nplayer\u2019s racquet. He required a root canal on one front tooth and a crown. The\nother front tooth needed to be extracted and replaced with a dental implant.\nAll of this could have been prevented with a mouthguard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A custom\nmouthguard made by your dentist covers the upper teeth with a soft, flexible\nmaterial that can prevent many injuries. It decreases the chance of the lower\njaw jamming into the upper jaw or being pushed back into the temporomandibular\n(jaw) joint. Mouthguards may reduce the severity and incidence of concussions\nas well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Custom\nmouthguards, made by a dentist, fit 100 times better than anything you can buy\nin a store. This not only improves performance (making it easier to breathe),\nbut also makes it more likely the athlete will keep the mouthguard in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Custom-made\nmouthguards may be a little more expensive than over-the-counter versions, but\nthey are far superior, and that is enough reason to consider them. Inform your\ndentist if you or your child participates in sports or recreational activities.\nBecause mouth injuries can be painful, costly, and life-changing, it is\nrecommended that all athletes take preventative measures at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At my seminar\nthis past week the presenter noted that injury to the teeth from sport injuries\ncreates life-long issues that can run in the 10\u2019s of thousands of dollars to\nmaintain over a lifetime. The $100 or so that it costs to have a well-fitting\ncustom guard made, that will be worn more often because it fits well, is worth\nevery penny. It kills me to see children and adults come in with injuries to\ntheir once beautiful front teeth. The best dentistry is no dentistry because\neven the best dentistry needs to be maintained and\/or replaced, sometimes\nmultiple times over a lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if it\nisn\u2019t \u201ccool\u201d to wear a mouthguard in the sport you are playing, strongly\nconsider it anyway. You only get one set of your own teeth. Custom guards can\nbe made with fancy colors and designs. You never know, you may start a\ntrend\u2026.and who cares what other people think; these are your teeth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. St. Clair\nmaintains a private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to\nhealth-centered family dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to\nsee written about or questions you have please email them to him at jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was at a continuing education seminar last week and one of the topics being discussed was mouthguards. Although it seems basic, and you would think that everyone who should be wearing one does, this is far from the case. I still see far too many sports related dental injuries in every season which could have been prevented. Any sport that presents the chance of contact or collision with another person, object, or surface can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}