Most Athletic Mouthguards Are Ineffective

This is NOT my opinion but that of Gordon Christensen, DDS, MSD and PHD. He is a renown clinician, teacher, lecturer and tester of dental products and materials.

And what does he think? The mouthguards that you buy for a few dollars in the drugstore, sporting goods store of Walmart are USELESS in preventing injury to a young athletes teeth.

Also: Most mouthguard made by many dental offices are not much better.

The best? Laminated Pressure-Formed Mouthguards that can be made in a dental office OR,  Injection molded Mouth guards made by dental laboratories.

So why do parents let their children use inexpensive, ineffective mouthguard? In a word, they are cheap.

Parents must understand that dental injuries to teeth can be very costly to correct. A root canal may be $1500 and a crown about the same...and that is if only one tooth is injured. We have to use our intelligence and spend more than a few dollars to protect our children and our checking account.

From a personal standpoint, it really does not matter because I have always made sports mouthguards as a 'passthrough' meaning the parents pay the lab fee, the models and postage. I don't make a dime in the process.

(Dr. Christensen's article appears in the October, 2014 issue of Dental Economics.)