Mouth guards were on the minds of the dentists and staff at Lancaster Dental Associates during the month of May. As a special service to the people in our community, LDA offered to make custom-made athletic mouth guards at a greatly reduced price. Dr. Charles Marchetta was featured in a Buffalo News article about sports-related mouth injuries, and the resulting interest in our mouth guard promotion greatly exceeded our expectations.
Athletic mouth guards have been proven to be an important means of protection from dental injuries due to trauma. Mouth guards can buffer damage to the teeth from physical contact to the face. They can also act as a barrier between teeth, lips, gum tissue, and the tongue, therefore limiting the risk of soft tissue damage.
An athlete wearing a mouth guard may also be less prone to concussion or jaw fracture, since the situation where the lower jaw slams into the upper jaw from a blow to the head is avoided or lessened.
The ideal mouth guard should: allow speaking and not limit breathing, stay firmly in place during athletic action, provide a high degree of comfort and fit, be durable and easy to clean, and be wear resistant, odorless and tasteless. The custom-made mouth guards made during our promotion have all of these characteristics, and provide a better level of comfort and protection than an over- the-counter stock-type mouth guard can.
LDA fabricated just under 300 mouth guards for area athletes of all ages in a variety of school or team colors. We saw a lot of smiles when the mouth guard was finished, and we will see the same smiles when the season is ended because our patients are protected.
