Summer Sports and Mouth Guards
It’s been a long dreary winter but summer is finally just over the horizon! With summer comes a plethora of warm weather, days outdoors, and lots of summer sports. While there is no shortage of fun times during summer, you don’t want to ruin your fun with a serious dental injury. There are some popular summer sports activities that can actually put you at a higher risk for mouth injuries. In fact, dental injuries from sports account for 40% of all dental injuries. To learn how to protect yourself or your children without sacrificing your summer fun, check out the helpful information and tips below. If you do find yourself with a dental injury, call Distinctive Dental so you can get back to your fun as soon as possible!
Water Activities
Water sports and activities are very popular in the summer months for obvious reasons. There’s nothing better than spending a day of fun and sun in the water! The following water activities can give you an increased chance of dental injury, so make sure you are taking the right precautions to avoid any mouth trauma.
- Swimming– it may be surprising to some as swimming isn’t a contact sport where you may get hit with something in the mouth, but if you are a frequent swimmer during the summer you can still get damage to your teeth. Spending more than six hours a week in chemically treated water can lead to unseemly yellowish-brown or dark brown stains on your teeth from their exposure to chemicals.
- Scuba Diving-scuba diving is a water activity that creates unique situations for your body as you descend to certain depths in the ocean. One of these things you will need to watch out for is called diver’s mouth syndrome. This is when air pressure changes, and/or biting too hard on your regulator can cause symptoms like jaw pain, gum issues, and pain in the center of the tooth.
Contact Sports
Popular summer contact sports include soccer, basketball, water polo and more. These activities pose a dental risk by their contact nature. Sports that don’t require headgear or mouth guards like the ones mentioned put you at an even higher risk for dental injury. If you already have had dental work done, then damage to your mouth can be even more costly.
How to Avoid Dental Injuries
One of the best ways to avoid dental injuries from summer activities is to wear a mouthguard. Mouthguards protect your teeth, tongue, jaw and gums from trauma while playing sports. They can absorb any contact and protect you from teeth going through your lip, losing teeth, biting your tongue, and much more. You can get custom-made mouthguards that are created from molds to perfectly fit your mouth or you can buy premade, store-bought mouthguards.
Get Summer Ready!
Get ready for your favorite summer activities by calling Distinctive Dental today! We can provide you with the best, custom-fit mouthguards so you can enjoy your favorite activities this summer with peace of mind.
