As students head back to school, raising awareness about sports dental safety is a big priority for us! We love to hear that our patients are doing what they love, while also keeping their smiles safe and healthy. Here’s what you need to know to protect your smile.
What are the Risks?
Playing sports comes with a lot of benefits. It’s a great way to get exercise, helps to build self-confidence, and teaches great life lessons in teamwork, perseverance, and good sportsmanship.
Playing sports also comes with its own risks, which might include impact to the mouth or jaw from contact with another player, ball, or due to falling. This could result in chipped, broken, or knocked out teeth.
Learning about how to practice sports dental safety can help you protect your smile before you experience an injury by being aware of the risks and knowing what you can do about them.
What Can You Do?
So, what can you do to protect your smile? Learning about the risks involved with each sport can help you to know which protective gear you should wear. With some sports, like football or hockey, a helmet or face protector is needed. With others, sports dental safety might be as simple as wearing a mouthguard. Your dentist can advise you on which protective gear is best to wear for the sport you play.
Many dentists recommend wearing a mouthguard, even when it’s not required to play a specific sport. This is because mouthguards have been proven to protect against dental trauma, jaw injuries, and even brain injuries. You can get a mouthguard at most sporting goods stores or your dentist can custom fit you for one to help ensure that it fits comfortably so that you’ll be more likely to want to wear it and fully benefit from its protection.
What if Something Happens?
Even when you do your best to protect yourself from the risks involved with playing sports, sometimes injuries still happen. The good news is that protective gear can help to lessen the severity of injuries. If you do experience a trauma to your mouth, face, or jaw, call your dentist right away. It’s important to get examined as soon as possible so that any injuries can be treated promptly to give you the best chance of a quick recovery and get you right back to playing the game you love!
Call our to make an appointment with a dentist who may be able to help you find out more about this topic, and improve your oral health.
