How to Care for Your Custom Mouth Guard for Longevity?

Children involved in sporting activities remain prone to injuries from impacts on their mouths, needing protective appliances to prevent significant damage. Mouthguards are incredible innovations as safety equipment in athletics.

Mouthguards help prevent tooth fractures and soft tissue injuries like biting your tongue. However, after purchasing custom mouthguards near you and investing a higher price for the appliance than OTC appliances, you should advise your child on maintaining the custom appliance appropriately to extend its longevity.

Custom mouthguards are unlike over-the-counter appliances, available at low prices because they don’t provide adequate protection and make breathing challenging for the wearer. In addition, OTC mouthguards protect the top teeth leaving the bottom teeth unprotected. The fear of sustaining injuries even after investing in a protective device may have made you consider getting a customized mouthguard for your kid from the pediatric dentist near you, paying higher prices than the other devices.

When delivering your child’s mouthguard, pediatric dentists advise maintaining the mouthguard for longevity. After all, your higher price entitles you to customer service to help your kid maintain the new appliance to ensure it lasts as long as possible. However, if you have misplaced the maintenance guidelines and are searching for information on caring for the custom mouthguard, here are some tips your child will find beneficial.

• Storage: After a vital game, advise your child not to toss the mouthguard in the helmet, face mask, or sports bag. Mouthguards can become lost or damaged when not stored in the storage case. To prevent investing further sums in purchasing a replacement mouthguard, get your child to follow a simple rule. Every time they remove the mouthguard after sporting activity, get them to store it in the storage case provided by the dentist. The storage case has vents to permit airflow. The case is best stored in a cool, dry place to prevent bacteria and mold from growing on the appliance. In addition, the dry atmosphere prevents heat and humidity from distorting the acrylic materials of the mouthguard.
• Cleaning: While mouthguards are excellent for protecting teeth from injuries, they have harmful side effects. The bacteria growing on them can make your child sick with strep throat or other infections. Get your child to clean the athletic mouthguard correctly to prevent unwanted diseases. After a game, your child must remove the appliance from the mouth and wash it under water before storing it, as mentioned earlier. The storage case also needs trying before putting the mouthguard inside for safekeeping. Finally, your child must take two minutes to brush their teeth to help remove harmful bacteria that may have transferred to their mouth when wearing the appliance.
• Chewing: it is an instinct to chew whenever children have anything in their mouth. They might be encouraged to chew on the mouthguard during exciting game moments. However, chewing can damage the appliance and dramatically shorten its life span by creating tiny holes that permit bacteria to thrive. The bacteria can also make your child sick when they wear the mouthguard again. To avoid the cost of replacing the mouthguard, frequently ask your child to remove the appliance when sitting on the sidelines and keep it with them in the storage case to avoid loss or damage. They can wear it in their mouth before they enter the field again for further activity.

While you can replace OTC mouthguards by discarding them, you can only adopt a similar approach towards custom mouthguards in Houston if they show visible signs of deterioration. When getting your custom mouthguard in Houston dentist would have provided a mold of the appliance in your child’s file; if your child needs a replacement, you can take the file to the pediatric dentist to enable them to produce a new replacement without needing additional impressions to fit your child’s teeth.

If your child does not have a suitable protective device to prevent injuries to their mouth and relies on over-the-counter appliances, do not risk the damages because the cost of fixing them is considerably higher than a custom mouthguard. Instead, schedule a consultation with Urbach Pediatric Dentistry to have a customized device fabricated for your child with a unique material that lasts longer and offers adequate protection without restricting breathing or leaving the lower teeth unprotected. Your small investment in the customized device will ensure plenty of savings if you advise your child to care for the device, as mentioned.