Mouthguard

A mouth guard covers the teeth and part of the jawbone to prevent injuries of teeth ( anterior trauma), jaw bones, lips and gums or reduce the degree of injury. Mouthguards are used in amateur and professional sports.

Mouthguards are used in many sports where deliberate or accidental impacts (beats, strikes, blows ) against face and jaw injuries or inability to work may cause. Such impacts may include, in combat sports such as boxing or wrestling, as well as in many ball sports occur, such as rugby, football, soccer, American football, Australian football, lacrosse, handball, basketball or hockey. A mouth guard, in case of a concussion by a blow to the jaw reduce the extent of injury.

A precursor of today's mouthguard was in 1890 by Woolf Krause, a London dentist, designed to protect boxers before lip cracks. The design of the modern mouthguard began in the 1970s with the work of Dr. AWS Wood, a Canadian pediatric dentist who wanted to protect the children's teeth at the hockey game better from injury.

In many sports, the regulations prescribe the use of a mouth guard, in other cases the use is even legally binding. In schools wearing a mouthguard during exercise certain sports is often enshrined in the school rules.

There are three different types of mouthguards:

• Department store goods ( assembled mouthguard ) - industrially manufactured in a predetermined shape and many different sizes, but almost no further change in ability to easily adapt to the mouth of the respective user. The only adjustment possibility is meticulous scraping with a knife or scissors. Reasonably priced.
• Cooking and chewing - thermoplastic material in prefabricated form and different sizes, the inserted after heating by boiling in his mouth and so modeled, can be better adapted to the shape of the palate. The most recent models are considered as well-suited to very good. Reasonably priced.
• Tailor-made ( custom- fabricated mouthguards ) - The impression of the palate and teeth, made ​​by a dentist, is transmitted by specialists ( dental technicians ) to a precisely aligned mask and is relatively expensive.