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WHy YOU SHOULD STOP USING CHEAP OVER THE COUNTER BOIL AND BITE MOUTHGUARDS
>> Inadequate Thickness of Material
When you mold a boil-and-bite guard, you unintentionally thin out the material at the biting surfaces of your teeth. This is exactly where you need the thickest amount of material possible. The result is that you aren't getting nearly enough padding between the upper and lower teeth, which not only puts you at risk for tooth damage but also allows for larger forces to be applied directly from your TMJ to your skull and brain.
>> Poor Retention
Over-the-counter guards are only molded around your teeth and do not take the rest of your oral anatomy into consideration. This leads to the need to clench your teeth together to keep the guard in place, which can distract you from your athletic performance and make it difficult to breathe. For this reason, they often dislodge when breathing through the mouth or when taking a heavy strike.
>> Degradation Over Time
Over-the-counter guards quickly degrade and loosen up over repeated uses and clenching. Impact Dental Designs guards are molded under intense heat and pressure and are meant to withstand the heaviest of forces. For this reason, they often last significantly longer.
WHY A DENTIST SHOULD DESIGN YOUR MOUTHGUARD
We take the functional anatomy of the TMJ joint into consideration with every design. Creating an ideal separation between the posterior teeth moves the mandibular condyle out of the glenoid fossa in your skull. That increased distance decreases the force of impact on your skull which can reduce the incidence of traumatic brain injury. To give a reference, an ideal separation is between 4 and 6 mm. Most boil and bite mouthguards have a separation of less than 2mm.
By incorporating your occlusion (the way your upper and lower teeth fit together) into your custom guard, we can get added stabilization of the head by head and neck muscles. Due to the thickness and elasticity of the material, athletes can safely clench down on them during competition.
This clenching activates various head and neck muscles which stabilized the head. Concussion specialist Dr.Karen Johnston states that, "The force require to concuss a fixed head is almost twice that of a mobile head."
Further studies show that intracranial pressure is more than halved when an athletes clenches down on a mouth guard during traumatic events.
WHY A UFC FIGHTER SHOULD DESIGN YOUR MOUTHGUARD
They are battle-tested! Since a mouthguard is one of the few pieces of protective equipment allowed in the cage, they've provided you with every possible advantage.
In addition to incorporating their own personal style into our artwork and custom designs, they've ensured that you can breathe easily and that the mouthguards stay in place even when taking the hardest of strikes or breathing through your mouth.
