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.

• Keep your mouthguard clean by washing it with light soapy solution and running water after each use (avoid using very hot water!)
• Every so often soak your mouthguard in a disinfecting solution before storage (we recommend a splash of mouthwash and cool water).
• Keep you mouthguard in a ventilated storage case (that Damage Control provides you) when no in use.
• You can also clean your mouthguard with a non abrasive toothpaste and soft toothbrush.
• Never chew on your mouthguard!
• Do not leave your mouthguard in direct sunlight or in a hot car for an extended period of time-your mouthguard will melt!

I have been in the retail business for many years, and it never ceases to amaze me what lengths companies go through to get you in the door, or sale you a product by making various promises that are not as good as they sound when you read the fine print.  I remember working for a wireless phone company many years back that advertised on television, news papers, and bill boards across the nation: 3,000 minutes for $29.99 a month! Sounds great doesn’t it?  That single advertisement brought droves of customers through the door, and being an employee of that company I had the fortunate task to inform them that if they paid attention to the fine print, it read, “200 anytime minutes, and 2,800 night and weekend minutes”.  Really? 2,800 night and weekend minutes?  Who needs that many night and weekend minutes?   I often question the pragmatic ethics of companies that use such advertising, and vow to make Damage Control Mouthguards guiltless of such practices.  Nevertheless, I do see many companies in the mouthguard industry using such methods.

Most boil and bite companies offer a $3,200 to $30,000 Dental Warranty.  Considering the average cost to fix a serious dental injury to a single tooth is around  $10,000-$15,000 over a lifetime of expenses, these warranties sound like generous offers in helping the consumer bear the burden of those expenses. A closer examination of the fine print tells a different story, however.

Let’s look at the fine print together:

Rawlings mouthguard $3,200 Dental Warranty:

As you can see in the above highlighted print the maximum dollars they will pay per tooth is only $100-not the $3,200 the average consumer assumes without reading the fine print.  Only in the unlikely event where all 32 of your teeth are knocked out while wearing their mouthguard will they dish out the $3,200 they have in bold print in front of all their mouthguard packages.  Therefore,  they will only cover .008% (less than 1%) of your dental costs if a single tooth is knocked out (assuming the average of $10,000-$15,000 to fix a replaced tooth) while wearing their product.

Tapout’s $30,000 Dental Warranty:

Again sounds great, but the fine print tells the true story.  Tapouts warranty says they will only give you $937.50 per injured or replaced tooth, up to a maximum of $30,000.  Therefore, $30,000 is only given to you in the unlikely event that all 32 of your teeth are knocked out while wearing their mouthguard. (It is very unlikely all 32 of your teeth will be knocked out even if you don’t wear a mouthguard.)

If you do indeed get injured, however, the following is the list of requirements one must do to get money from Tapout’s Mouthguard Warranty:

1. You must get your injury worked on by a professional dentist within thirty days of the event of the injury.

2. You have to send Tapout all your insurance claims, and what is ever paid by your insurance the Tapout Warranty will only pay the left over difference up to $937.50 per tooth.

3.  You must have had no previous work done on that particular tooth that is knocked out or damaged.  Therefore, if you had a root canal, crown, or filling done on that particular tooth that is injured, the Tapout warranty will not cover that injured tooth. Moreover, in order to prove to them that no work was ever done on that injured tooth,  you must provide an x-ray of the tooth before it was injured proving there has been no previous work done on it.  Do you currently have x-rays on all your healthy teeth?  If not you better get them ($$$) if you want this warranty to be valid to you.

4.  Have a written statement by your Dentist.

5.  Have a written statement by a game official or coach official stating that they examined the mouthguard being worn and they deemed it fitted and worn properly.

Here are important questions to ask any company offering these types warranties:

What is the maximum you will pay per injured tooth?

Will the warranty cover my injured tooth if I had previous work done on that particular tooth?

Will you accept the x-rays of my injured tooth (teeth) if they were taking over 6 months prior to the injury?

If the injury happens in an unofficial sporting event, or without the presence of my coach will I still be covered under the warranty?

My wife and I attended the Academy of Sports Dentistry Symposium this year in Washington, D.C.,  and we had the privilege to sit and listen to many experts on the subject of  mouthguard fabrication, concussions, and dental injuries.  Below are the notes I took on a presentation related to this discussion:

What are the associated cost when a tooth is knocked out or damaged?

A study done by Dr. David J Kenny examined the economic and treatment burden on parents of children, and children with the ages between 8-14 years of age that had suffered sever dental trauma.

Below is a list of what he and his team found in one study:

90% of children missed school time

52% missed 1-2 weeks of school time(I, the author of this blog, would like to see a study done on adults with dental injuries and the associated work time missed.   The more work time missed, the more increase in costs, i.e. money lost, due to the injury )

86% of parents missed work time

Indirect and direct costs that may include 7-9 dental visits, $2,000 in fees and treatment the first year.

Below is a list of what he and his team found in a second study which examined the impact of dental trauma to children and parents of those children 6-12 months after the event of the dental injury:

Parents of older children reported a negative effect on their quality of life that was greater than parents of younger children.  This parental decrease in quality of life is present beyond a year following the event.

Parents and patients want return to normalcy as quickly as possible.

Normalcy never returns

Sever dental injuries to incisors can cost $15,000 per tooth over a lifetime, multiple procedures, failed restorations, lost time, family disruptions and psychological effects.

Aside form the monetary expenses we see that there are other elements involved in dental injury cases.  Missed work,  missed school, physiological effects of losing your teeth, time off from your sporting activity, discomfort caused by the injury, and pain…did I mention pain?

Therefore, are you taking comfort in the fact that a minute portion of money is going to be paid toward your dental expenses, if you qualify, while using an inferior protective device for your teeth (which is more likely to happen using such devices), or are your going to invest in a protection device that offers the maximum protection in the market today?

Congratulations to Cage Walker Clothing for having their entry selected and voted upon by our Facebook “likers” to be our logo’s character’s official name. They are the winners of a Free Our Logo Line Custom Mouthguard.  Below is the acceptance speech given by Cage Walker Clothing on our Facebook page:

Thank you. Thank you everyone. None of this would have been possible without you. When I was just a young boy, I had a dream…a dream that one day I would be called upon to do something great, that one day I would name a logo character for a top of the line custom mouthguard company. Today my dream has come true. (que Lynard Skynard Freebird) When my time on earth is over and the history books are written, the name Cage Walker will be forever linked to Damage Control Mouthguards. (Crowd chants SLUGGO! SLUGGO! SLUGGO!)

Be on the look as our logo will be proudly on his banner for this fight!

In the upcoming months I will be writing a series comparing the three most  popular mouthguards in the market.

We all know the benefits of mouthguards in preventing tooth injury, in this article I will talk about mouthguards and their relation to preventing jaw injury.  Also, I will compare three popular types of mouthguards and the comparative benefits and drawbacks they have in preventing jaw injuries.

In the above picture you see three mouthguard types.   Starting from the left we have a standard store bought boil and bight mouthguard.  In the middle is a Damage Control Custom Fit Mouthguard, and to the right is another boil and bite mouthguard with a plastic lining on the bottom.

The first mouthguard you can get at any Wal-Mart store for around two dollars.  It can be trimmed with a pair of scissors if it extends too far back in your mouth and causes a gag reflex.  You drop it into boiling water, put it in your mouth, bite down and suck.  After the process is done you have a mouthguard somewhat fitted to your mouth.  However, there is a problem that occurs during this forming process.  When you bite down on the semi-melted mouthguards you compromise the thickness of the mouthguard when the upper and lower teeth come together into the mouthguard.   This may not only cause the colliding and fracturing of your upper and lower teeth from a  punch or landing on your jaw, but it  may also cause jaw joint trauma.  This occurs when your lower jaw is forced up and damages the jaw joint (temporomandibular joint or TMJ).   A mouthguard should create a gap to prevent TMJ injuries.  Your standard boil and bites mouthguards offer minimal and in most cases no protection against such injuries.

Some boil and bite mouthguards have created a solution to the above problem.

Many of the now most popular mouthguards have a thick plastic layer which is inserted between the upper and lower teeth in which maintains the proper thickness and gap in the jaw to prevent the above mentioned injuries.  These are sold at your sporting goods stores for ten to fifty dollars.  These do offer you the protection of jaw injuries and tooth collision that your standard boil and bite m0uthguards do not; nevertheless, with a price, a price that inhibits the fighter or athlete from performing at his or her best performance.

As a result of the thick plastic insertion, you have a bigger, heaver and bulkier mouthguard.  Therefore, you have a mouthguard that obstructs breathing because of its bulky size, and because of its heavy weight you have gravity pulling down on the mouthguard obstructing the fighters breathing all the more.  Also, movement from the athlete and the blows a fighter receives can cause shifting of the mouthguard inside the fighter’s mouth causing it to fly out or dislodge.  Furthermore, these types of mouthguards come in one standard size and may be too small for some consumers or too large for others. If they are too small you do not have proper protection for all areas of your teeth and jaw. If they are too large they cannot be trimmed down if the mouthguard extends too far back and causes a gag reflex.  The number two compliant of these types of mouthguards, next to breath obstruction, is the gag reflex they cause.

Damage Control Custom Fit Mouthguards  range from $119-$195.   Damage Control Mouthguards are made from a mold fashioned from an impression of your upper teeth. These are the type of mouthguards your Dentist would make or suggest for the best ultimate protection. Because they are made from an exact replication of your upper teeth, you will not have a mouthguard too big or small for your mouth.  In  the above picture  you can see that this custom fit mouthguard is much larger than the two store bought boil and bite mouthguards in discussion.  Therefore, if this fighter, whom the Custom Fit Mouthguards belongs to, had used any two of the store bought mouthguards you can see above, they would not be large enough for his mouth offering minimal protection to his teeth and gum line area.   Also, in spite of the size difference of the custom fit mouthguard,  you have a mouthguard that pops on to your upper teeth allowing you too breath better than if you had any of the two smaller boil and bite mouthguards that tend to constantly shift in your mouth during competition causing breath obstruction and worries of dislodging.  Moreover,  because of Damage Control Mouthguards’ thicknesses, they not only offer superior protection against collision of your upper and lower teeth, but also the most optimal size gap to prevent jaw injuries.

As a result, Damage Control Custom Fit Mouthguards  gives you confidence in having  superior protection against jaw and tooth injury, increased performance because of greater oxygen intake,  and better concentration and focus by not having to worry about a shifting less protective mouthguard.  That is one of many reasons why Damage Control Mouthguards keep you in the fight!

If anyone was wondering what that yellow thing was on Brock Lesner’s teeth during his training sessions on UFC Primetime-it was an UAPM Mouthguard.  If anyone one was wondering why the heck he was wearing it when lifting weights then read this article on our Blog about the mouthguard.

Performance Mouthwear from Under Armour is a new category of sports gear that gives athletes of every sport a competitive edge… from football and biking, to golf and track.  For contact sports, the custom-fitted mouthguards are recommended to provide protection, as well as improve performance.  For the non-contact athlete, a custom-designed mouthpiece will deliver all the benefits of this cutting-edge, performance-enhancing mouthwear!

Proven Benefits

Independent studies at some of the nation’s top universities and research centers have scientifically proven the advantages of the Under Armour Mouthwear:

• Increases strength
• Increases endurance
• Speeds up reaction time
• Reduces athletic stress
• Reduces impact

More Information

To view a video of the Under Armour Performance Mouthwear and to get more information about the research and science behind this revolutionary technology, please visithttps://www.pattersondental.com/UnderArmour/.

If anyone is interested in purchasing an Under Armour Performance Mouthguard or Mouthpiece, please contact us, for our Dental Practice Sells them! 505-804-8941 www.dcmouthguard.com

UFC 120 October 16, 2010

Please help Damage Control Mouthguards name the character in their new logo.  We will narrow the entries to three finalist that will then be voted by  Facebook “likers” and Twitter followers.  The winner will win a free Our Logo Line mouthguard.  Please see our mouthguard lines at our  Damage Control Mouthguards Website.  Three Finalists will be selected Oct. 14, 2010 and then voting will be begin.  The finalist that has the most votes by October 26 will be the winner of the free mouthguard.  Thanks in advance for participating.

A little about our logo:

This logo was designed in the Japanese Anime style. The character boldly personifies the heart and soul of the brand. The fun, atheletic icon shows the grit and determination in the heart of every athlete, while the caged mouthguard represents the protection and shield Damage Control Mouthguards affords against trauma.