This article is Part II of Boil and Bite Vs. Damage Control Custom Fitted Mouthguards.
In the last article I compared Boil and Bite mouthguards to Damage Control Custom Fitted Mouthguards in their protection against Jaw injury. In this article I will go through of series of pictures taken comparing the two types in comfort, and their protection against tooth, lip and gum injury.
As far as protection goes one can see in the above pictures that Damage Control’s Custom fitted mouthguards offer more protection to the teeth and gum area than this manufacturer’s boil and bite mouthguard. It is important that your mouthguard not only covers your entire tooth, but the gum area that the tooth’s root is attached to. If a knuckle were to come landing above this boil bite mouthguard, the wearer is at higher risk of tooth damage than if the wearer was wearing our custom fit mouthguard that covers the entire region.
Here you see that Damage Control’s Custom Fitted Mouthguards cover back to the last tooth which keeps the proper space in the proper area to prevent against jaw injury as discussed in the previous article.
Here are the top view pictures of each mouthguard. Can you see how thick the boil and bite mouthguards edge is? This thickness can cause you inner lip to bust if impact were to occur in that area. At Damage Control we have the special machinery needed to “grind” the edges down to prevent these types of injuries from occurring. We do that with every custom mouthguard we fabricate. Further, the wearer of these mouthguards complained that the boil and bite mouthguard jammed into the side of his gum line causing discomfort and pain in that area. Dipping the boil and bite back into boiling hot water did not remedy the problem.
In conclusion, the author of this article gasps every time he sees professional or amateur fighters on TV or at a local events wearing these types of boil and bite mouthguards. These types boil and bite mouthguards not only cause breath obstruction, constantly dislodge in and out of the fighters mouth, they just do not provide the proper protection an athlete needs in a combat sports.
