So the world smiles with you!
Dental injuries from sport are more common, and more preventable, than most people realise. They range from cut lips, gums or cheeks through to chipped, cracked or fractured teeth (sometimes with nerve damage), teeth pushed out of position, or knocked out entirely. In serious cases, a broken jaw.
It’s not just contact sport causing the damage: cycling, skateboarding and scooter accidents account for around 44% of dental injuries, while football, boxing, basketball, netball, cricket, hockey and soccer combined account for up to 14%.
A few factors make dental trauma more likely: not wearing a mouthguard, protruding (‘buck’) front teeth, inadequate lip coverage over the front teeth, and current orthodontic treatment such as braces. Any sport involving equipment contact, collisions or falls carries increased risk, regardless of whether it’s classed as ‘contact’ or not.
A mouthguard’s job is simple: absorb and spread the force of an impact so less of it reaches your teeth and jaw. That’s the difference between a minor knock and a genuinely serious injury. An increasing number of Australian sports clubs now run a ‘no mouthguard, no play’ policy, and for good reason. A custom-made mouthguard from your dentist, moulded to your own teeth, gives significantly better protection than a generic store-bought version, which often fits poorly and can affect speech and breathing. Mouthguards need to be worn for training, not just official games, most injuries don’t wait for game day.
Worth knowing while we’re here: sports drinks (water, electrolytes, plus added sugar and food acids) can damage your teeth if you rely on them too heavily, contributing to both decay and erosion. Decay happens when sugar feeds bacteria in your mouth, which then produce acids that attack the tooth surface. Erosion is different, it’s acid directly dissolving the minerals in your enamel, which softens the tooth and makes it vulnerable to being worn away.
If your current mouthguard is a few seasons old, doesn’t fit well, or you’ve been playing without one, you should have one constructed, before the injury happens, not after.
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At Smile Hawthorn, we see the beauty in every smile, and we aim to provide the highest levels of care to our patients, so they always smile their biggest and brightest.
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