Sports Mouth Guards
By Jonathan Berohn
If you read my other article on alternatives to teeth scraping, you be right to guess that I'd be strongly in favor of anything that would keep me out of the dentist's office. In addition to that, I'm all for anything that keeps all my teeth in my mouth. That said, it's easy to spend a lot more money than you need to in the name of safeguarding your teeth.
Overkill
Once again I'll point to dentists as the main culprits. I play ice hockey, so I'm naturally quite interested in avoiding the Deliverance look. I also wear a full face shield, so my mouth guard needs are nowhere near as extreme as my fellow morons...er - players who don't wear anything over their faces. Nonetheless, my dentist tried to convince me that I needed a several hundred-dollar custom made mouthpiece. Granted, it's his business to protect teeth, but in most sports a mouthpiece is important as much for preventing concussions as it is for keeping your teeth in your mouth. Think about it - how many toothless football players do you see? Unless you are a boxer and/or a hockey player who likes to stop the puck with your face, the custom mouth guard approach seems like a clear case of spending extra money for the sake of spending extra money.
An Effective Compromise
Once again, if you play a contact sport where you don't cover your face - think about the custom mouth guard. If you don't, think about the semi-custom moldable mouthpieces you can buy at any sporting goods store. With these mouth guards, you drop them in boiling water to soften them up, and then mold them to your mouth. When they cool, they harden and maintain the fairly custom fit. To be sure, you won't get quite the comfort or safety of the fully custom option, but you will save hundreds. And, just to give you an idea about how confident the makers of these products are, many of them offer you some free dental insurance in case they fail.