What Are Hockey Mouthguards For?

Though misunderstood by athletes and coaches, mouth guards are an important piece of sports equipment. Recommend by almost every dental professionnal, mouth guards are essential in providing oral protection for athletes participating in contact sports like hockey.

Why wear a hockey mouthguard?

Direct blows to the face from sticks, pucks, arms and other equipment are fairly common in hockey. As a result, chipped teeth, fractured jaws, lacerated lips and cheeks are injuries that many athletes obtain without the wearing of a mouthguard. 

Mouth guards are used to protect the teeth and mouth area from impacts to the face as well as upper/lower jaw collisions. In fact, mouth guards act as a shock absorber by giving something a player can bite into, and as a result, guards mitigate and redirect impact forces. When a athlete receives a blow to the face, the transmitted force from the chin to the jaw bone, teeth and facial bones can be significatly reduced. Injuries to the mouth are not only painful, but difficult to fix as well. The easiest and best way to prevent these injuries is to wear a mouth guard.

For athletes wearing braces, mouth guards are very important. When impact is made against the braces, the sharp and angular design can cause severe lacerations inside the mouth, permanent dental injuries, as well as damage to the actual braces. A mouth guard designed for braces should be made of soft flexible materials that wrap around the brace brackets and wires.We recommend the Nxtrnd Braces guard.

For maximum protection, we recommend a mouth guard that covers all the teeth and the bite should be balanced. Thicker material should be placed under the molars in front of the mouth wear more important impacts occur. The comfort of the athlete also needs to be taken into consideration when it comes to thickness. It is also important that the mouth guard stays in place in the event of an impact, so that the athlete does not have to continuously bite down on the guard to keep it in place. For more information on how to choose your mouth guard, please see our section entitled " How to choose the right mouth guard ".

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