Opening Hours
Monday - Friday
Call Us
01749 675 825
Location
11 Priory Road, Wells, BA5 1SU
From boxing to basketball, cricket to cycling, hockey to horse riding, football to netball, rounders to rugby, and several in between, contact sports, and those that involve speed or bats and balls, can seriously endanger teeth. Studies indicate that between 13% and 39% of all dental injuries are sports related and about one quarter of all children in the UK will injure and/or lose a front tooth at some stage.
As a result the dental profession is lobbying for the mandatory use of gumshields for all school children or club players participating in contact sports. The British Orthodontic Society, the British Dental Association Logo, Rugby Football League Association, British Boxing Council, English Hockey Association and Rugby Football Union, emphatically recommend a gumshield should be part of the sports kit. The Rugby Football Association’s website comments that: “In the best interests of players’ safety, we strongly recommend that all players wear a gumshield during any contact rugby sessions. It has been shown that this significantly reduces the incidence of dental injuries”.
There are several different types of ‘ortho-guard’ gumshields specially designed to fit over fixed braces and the British Orthodontic Society recommends that this is the best type to use with a fixed brace. At Wells Orthodontics we will advise and supply an appropriate gumshield to suit your needs:
Some companies are now making special off the shelf ‘ortho-guard’ gumshields for patients with braces which feature a channel or trough to accommodate the brace and allow for tooth movement.
‘Boil and bite’ gumshields can be shaped to fit by softening in boiling water and then sucked to mould to the contours of the mouth. This means that as the teeth move, the gumshield can be remoulded to adapt to the new shape of the mouth.
