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For all types of sports, athletes depend on mouthguards to protect their teeth. Whether you’re playing basketball or a high contact sport like football, a mouthguard is a good investment. However, many athletes choose standard mouthguards they can boil and bite to fit to their mouth, and while they work well if you’re on a budget, they don’t offer the same benefits as a custom mouthguard.

Here are some reasons a custom fit mouthguard provides you an advantage as an athlete and an individual looking to protect their teeth.

More Comfort

The problem with a mouthguard you form fit at home is that it might fit better than a standard guard you simply take off the shelf and wear, but it still may not fit as well as custom fit mouthguards that a dental professional can fit for you in an office.

Moreover, the process involved in creating a boil and bite mouthguard uses thermoplastic materials that may thin out, compromising the protection the mouthguard is designed to provide as you fit it to your teeth. A custom fit mouthguard doesn’t have the same problems.

Better Oxygen Flow

Maximizing your breathing is important to every athlete regardless if your sport requires endurance fitness like soccer or short bursts of energy like football. Wearing a mouthguard custom fit to your tooth structure will help you breathe better than a standard mouthguard or a boil and bite guard because it’s designed to protect your teeth, not constrict your activity.

Customized for the Sport

While many mouthguards protect the top teeth only, a custom fit mouthguard a dentist fits to your bite can also provide a guard for your lower teeth. Depending on the sport, it might be necessary to protect the lower and upper teeth. Additionally, if you have braces or other dental appliance on your lower teeth, a mouthguard on your lower jaw might be necessary.

A dental professional such as an orthodontist or dentist will be able to talk to you about the options and determine what’s best for your sport.

Can Work with Braces

Unlike boil and bite mouthguards, a custom fit mouthguard an orthodontist can fit to your individual mouth can be fitted for athletes with braces.

More Durable

Thermoplastic materials are great if you want a quick mouthguard that fits your teeth to a point, but because of the heating process the materials go through, the materials are not as strong or durable. A custom fit mouthguard made by a dental professional uses the highest quality materials that are strong and long-lasting, providing the best protection today’s technology can provide.

Athletes on the go who make an investment in a custom fitted mouthguard know the value of what they’re getting. Protect your teeth and worry less about – contact Dr. Frost today at (314) 567-1888 for your consultation.



It is interesting how often unusual orthodontic situations can be discovered with a simple exam and X-ray. Just this week I have diagnosed young children (8 to 10 years of age) with multiple missing permanent teeth and/or supernumerary (extra) teeth.

Both missing permanent teeth and supernumerary teeth are common conditions, and they can only be first seen with an X-ray. This is because permanent teeth form underneath baby teeth long before they ‘push up’ to the surface of the gums. By seeing where and how teeth are forming (as well as how many), an orthodontist can adjust a patient’s treatment plan accordingly.

In the X-ray image below, you can see how clear it is that this patient has several extra teeth coming in below the permanent teeth:

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(Image credit: http://www.cda-adc.ca/)

Supernumerary teeth can mean crowding for existing or future permanent teeth, or these teeth could possibly come in at other places in the mouth. A lack of permanent teeth, on the other hand, results in gaps and spaces.

Fortunately, there are many treatment options available whether a patient will have too many–or not enough–permanent teeth. A combination of timely extractions, oral surgery, orthodontic treatment, or cosmetic treatments will make sure a child will have a great looking smile as an adult.

In both cases I saw this week, these diagnoses made a significant impact on the patients’ treatment plans. Although their treatment (braces) will not happen for a year or two, we were able to make sure the treatment works best at that time through the use of X-rays.

Treating a patient whose permanent teeth are still coming in and changing makes this process more difficult. So if your child has not seen an orthodontist by 8 or 9 years of age, please schedule a consultation soon. The earlier your child’s orthodontist knows how his or her teeth will come in, the easier the treatment process will be. It can really make a difference.


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