Mouthguards give athletes something to chew on
Canadian Cassie Sharpe, soared up the steep sides of the ski halfpipe, perfectly executing body and mind blowing grabs, switch corks, 1080 spins, and flips, to smoothly sail to a stunning gold medal victory at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.
As the 25-year old sensation raised her arms in celebration, her blue eyes sparkled and her blonde hair flew, but it was her uniquely dazzling smile that really stole the picture.
A gleaming white mouth guard with a gold leaf emblazoned in the middle—a cheeky tribute to her home and native land—stretched to cover her perfectly straight top teeth. That mouth guard did a lot to impress the public and to protect the decorated skier from all kinds of injuries.
Made of plastic specially designed to absorb and dissipate force when the upper and lower jaw slam together, mouth guards shaped like dental trays are typically worn on the upper teeth.
Mouth guards protect teeth from flying objects like balls and pucks and keep teeth from lacerating the tongue, lips and insides of the cheeks. They also help protect against fractured jaws and preserve what are often orthodontic perfected smiles.
While stock mouth guards and even the boil and bite kind are affordable, like with many things, you get what you pay for.
Dentists strongly recommend custom-made mouthguards for the best fit, longevity and, most importantly, proper protection.
Unlike broken bones that mend, damaged teeth do not grow back, making mouthguards a good investment to safeguard teeth, gums, and soft tissue and supporting bones from trauma.
In fact, the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association requires its elite athletes to wear mouthguards for training and competing and nothing says wear this like an athlete wearing that.
Alex Bilodeau did it back in 2010 in Vancouver, when the master mogalist took the gold medal and the wearing of a mouth guard to a whole new level.
Sharpe has followed suit. With an untouchable 95.80 on her second run, Sharpe dominated the Olympic scoreboard in South Korea, catapulting to superstar status worldwide.
Just Google the young athlete from Comox and know what that might mean. As kids on skis everywhere try to emulate her, she’s set a fine example of how wearing a protective appliance is super cool.
What’s more, mouthguards just might protect athletes’ noggins.
A 2014 study by Winters and Dumont (Medscape.com) investigated the role of custom-made and properly fitted mouthguards compared to the over-the-counter kind in preventing mild concussions in high school football athletes. The randomized, prospective study involved more than 400 male athletes from six football teams in western Pennsylvania.
Half the teams (220 players) wore custom-fitted mouthguards, while 192 players from three teams donned the over-thecounter kind. All of the players wore the same helmets.
By the end of the football season, 24 occurrences of mild TBI (traumatic brain injury) or concussion were reported. Eight of the injured players were wearing custom mouthguards with more than three millimetre thickness in the posterior occlusal area at the time of injury, while 16 players were wearing over-the-counter mouthguards with an average thickness of 1.34 mm.
The incidence rate of mild TBI was 3.6 per cent with the custom guards and 8.3 per cent with overthe-counter, leading the study’s authors to conclude wearing custom fit mouthguards of at least three mm thickness might reduce the incidence of mild concussions.
While we want our kids to be active, the leading cause of concussion in young adults and youth results from sports, especially collision ones, like rugby, football, and ice hockey, according to a systematic review by the University of Calgary.
Dr. Paul van Donkelaar, is a professor in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at UBC Okanagan. Because his research focuses on gaining a better understanding of how the human brain is able to plan and execute body movements in both healthy people as well as in patients with TBI, he’s encouraged by this kind of research.
Still, he acknowledges the evidence suggesting mouthguards protect from head injuries is not overwhelming — yet. More casecontrol studies are needed, but that said, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
““Mouthguards protect the teeth and jaw and potentially reduce the forces being transmitted to the brain during a head impact to the jaw or face,”” van Donkelaar says. So why not wear one?
Cassie Sharpe does and it looks good on her.
Shannon Linden writes a blog, magazine articles and grocery lists. Visit her at: shannonlinden.ca.