Merivale Denture Clinic

For a lot of us Kiwis sport is a very integral part of our social and professional lives.

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The importance of sports dentistry has become even greater due to the role that sports have in modern society. The risk of sports-related injuries are present as early as early childhood play right through to later stages of our lives, hence the dental and medical professionals highly recommend custom made mouthguards for successful prevention of orofacial and dental injuries.

 

It is important to inform athletes of the best characteristics of a custom-made mouthguard such as retention, comfort, fit, ease of speech, resistance to tearing, ease of breathing as well as good protection of the teeth, brain, jaw, neck and spine.

 

Meta-analyses indicated that the risk of an orofacial sports injury was 1.6-1.9 times higher when a mouthguard was not worn (published by "Sports Med, National Centre of Biotechnology Information") while other studies have shown that use of mouthguards could attenuate the forces applied to the head as the result of a blow on the chin is reduced about 50% where amplitude of the intracranial pressure wave after impact was halved as the result of mouthguards ability to absorbed pressure upon impact (American Dental Association).

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A great example is a study published by Stenger et al, who claimed benefit for both head and cervical spinal injuries by mouthguard use. The authors reported their experience of a season of gridiron football by the Notre Dame University team. In this paper, they anecdotally reported five cases of their experience in which mouthguard use had abolished the symptoms of Meniere's disease, cervical nerve root compression, chronic “burners” (cervical radicular syndrome), dizzy spells/low back pain, and, in one case, repeated concussion. They also noted that there were “six or seven” players within the team who required cervical traction before matches and that the need for such traction was abolished by regular mouthguard use (Journal of American Dental Association).

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For true custom mouthguards it is not a case of one size/design fits all for every sport, in fact the design of the mouthguards varies greatly depending on which sport you're using the mouthguards for, in consideration to the unique anatomy and conditions present among every individual. Last but not least the mouthguards should also look good while we're at it where we offer graphic designs from simple colours and patterns to custom printed graphics depending on the range of the mouthguard treatment.

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Discount offered for all children, adolescent, friends / family of existing patients of Merivale and Nelson Denture Clinics.