The cold weather should not keep you from going outside and enjoying the range of winter sports and other fun activities available in your region. However, it is important that you protect your mouth from potential impact with hard surfaces, other players, or balls by wearing a mouthguard during practice or competitions.
A mouth guard could prove to be helpful if you participate in any of these winter sports:
- Basketball – Basketball can get a bit rough with aggressive defending and boxing out. As a high-contact sport, you risk getting injured or losing a tooth in the unfortunate event that the ball or a player’s elbow, knee, or shoulder hits your mouth with great impact.
- Hockey – For a sport where you don’t get any points for slamming into the opponent, this is a very common and enjoyable part of the game that puts every player at risk of all sorts of bodily injury. Both the attacker and opponent risk biting their lip or tongue or injuring their mouth in other ways from the sudden impact. So, it is critical that you wear a mouthguard.
- Skiing/snowboarding – Although this is not a high contact sport, any accident that arises can ruin your smile. You should protect your mouth in the event that crash into another person or obstacle, or even fall on your own.
- Sledding – Just like skiing, sledding can cause injury even though it is not a high-contact activity, ruining your smile. You could fall when sliding down a hill, crash into another sledder, or even crash as try to maneuver or stop. Any part of your body could get injured from the impact, so it is important that you get the necessary protective gear, including a mouth guard.
- Wrestling – With wrestling, you will be in constant contact with your opponent – pushing, rolling, flipping – which dramatically increases the risk of mouth injury. So, you should protect your teeth, gums, tongue, and lips from sudden impact by wearing a mouth guard.
Get custom-fitted mouth guards
Mouth guards are designed to fit over the upper teeth to protect them from cracking, chipping, or breaking due to impact to your mouth, face or head. They also protect your mouth from internal injuries like biting your tongue or lips.
You can choose to purchase a ready-made mouth guard that has the American Dental Association (ADA) Seal of Acceptance, or consult your dentist for a custom-made guard that is specially designed for your mouth to provide comfort and superior protection. You will, however, have to part with a little more cash for the extra benefits.