FACIAL & DENTAL INJURY PREVENTION

FACIAL & DENTAL INJURY PREVENTION in ORTHODONTICS

Each year, thousands of children who play in organized and neighborhood sports end up in the emergency room because of knocked-out teeth, broken jaws, or other facial injuries. Their injuries could have been far less severe or even eliminated if they had worn a mouth guard or a helmet.

When kids don’t wear mouth guards for most sports, it’s usually because there is so little awareness of their importance among parents and coaches.

Although mouth guards are now generally considered standard equipment for football and hockey players, they really should be worn during any contact sport. And by contact sport, we don’t just mean the kind of sport where one player knocks into another, but any sport in which player is likely to have his or her face come into contact with the pavement or other hard objects.

The AAO recommends that kids who participate in soccer, extreme sports (BMX biking, skateboarding and in-line skating) and other common sports should wear a mouth guard or other equipment to protect them from facial injury.

Our office gives all of our patients who play sports, a special orthodontic mouth guard, to wear during their orthodontic treatment.

Michael Noorani
www.greatsmileforyou.com