Teeth defects and infections are commonly caused by bad oral habits, bad oral hygiene, and injury/accidents from work or sports. These can lead to tooth decay, and chipped, cracked, or broken teeth. Defects caused by some bad oral habits and work/sport-related injuries can be avoided if proper precautions are taken. Abuse of the teeth (e.g cracking nuts with the teeth, opening corks with the teeth, etc) and trauma to the face during work or sports are only going to lead to a chipped, cracked, or broken tooth.
Bruxism is the grinding of the teeth or clenching of the jaw by an individual unconsciously as a bad habit or as a sleep disorder. Frequent cases of bruxism are enough to cause splitting headaches, jaw disorder, and cracked, chipped, or broken teeth. Broken, chipped, or cracked teeth are defective and have a bad outlook on your facial aesthetics. Furthermore, they hinder the teeth from performing their responsibilities efficiently.
The functions of the teeth are to bite, tear, chew, and grind food, give shape to the face, and aid the production of speech and pronunciation of words. Cracked, chipped, or broken teeth would make chewing, biting, tearing, and grinding of food difficult, make the face sag, and make the pronunciation of words an almost impossible task.
Another reason for chipped, broken, or cracked teeth is trauma to the face from injuries or accidents. Contact sports like football, lacrosse, basketball, hockey, etc, that hold the risk of a direct hit to the face can cause a tooth to chip, crack, or break. Also, non-contact sports and occupations that possess a high fall risk can cause the teeth to chip, crack, or break.
Seeing the damage that bad oral habits and work/sports-related injuries can cause to the teeth, the teeth must be protected at all costs to prevent damage to dental health. A major way to protect the teeth from the damage of bruxism, and occupational, and sports injury is to wear custom-made mouthguards.
Mouthguards are dental prosthetic devices that cover and protect the organs of the mouth from trauma caused by bruxism and sport or work-related injuries. Mouthguards do not only protect the teeth. They also protect the tongue, lips, gums, jaws, and face. You might need a mouthguard if:
Mouthguards are divided into two categories. These include mouthguards made to protect the teeth from sports or work injuries and mouthguards made to protect the teeth from the damage of bruxism(teeth grinding). These mouthguards serve different purposes and might look and feel different.
There are different types of mouthguards depending on their method of production. They include:
These types of mouthguards are specially made with the impressions of your teeth. This makes them fit your teeth and mouth perfectly. This type of mouthguard is custom-made by a dental professional and it costs more, however, it provides the best fit and protection for the teeth. They are specially made for you either to protect you at work, during sport or at night because of bruxism.
This type of mouthguard is made with a thermoplastic material and can be shaped at home to fit your teeth. After buying it, you place the mouthguard into hot water to soften it and then place it in your mouth. You can use your fingers to press the mouthguard on your teeth and when it is in the right position, you bite down to shape it for the best fit.
This type of preformed mouthguard comes in one size and is ready to wear. As expected, they rarely fit well and can even cause breathing difficulties. It provides the worst fit and protection.
The custom-made mouthguard is the best in terms of the perfect fit and protection.
The benefits of a custom guard are:
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