KATY Edition – Play Sports? Guard Your Mouth!

Amy Sharp

Everywhere you look in Katy, there’s a team of kids playing soccer, football, baseball, tennis, fencing and more. We love seeing our kids build physical strength while learning teamwork and developing critical mental skills…but we want to keep them safe, too! Most sports require some form of protective equipment––from shin guards to knee pads to full body pads. But frequently, one important piece of equipment is still missing!

“The mouthguard is so often overlooked in youth sports,” says Dr. Faisal M. Khan at Grand Parkway Pediatric Dental. “The financial cost of an avulsed or knocked out permanent tooth is high…we’re talking upward in the $10,000s range over a lifetime. And that doesn’t take into account the pain involved, the time lost for both the child and the parent, and the sometimes devastating aesthetic concerns.”

The Academy of Sports Dentistry (ASD) and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) both recommend using a properly fitted custom mouthguard when playing team sports. Dr. Khan says, “In high contact sports such as football, athletic mouthguards have been used for years to offer protection to the oral cavity. But recently, certain custom mouthguards have been found to also offer some protection against concussions.”

“There are three types of mouthguards available,” says Dr. Khan. “A Type I mouthguard is produced on a dental model of your child’s mouth and is the gold standard, offering maximum protection. Type II is a“boil and bite” mouthguard is made by heating and softening the material in boiling water and then having the child bite down on the material. This mouthguard offers less protection than Type I. Finally, Type III is what we see most often…stock mouthguards purchased from a sporting goods store. These offer the least amount of protection.”

To evaluate if your child needs a mouthguard or to see if your child has the correct mouthguard, give Dr. Khan a call. This Detroit native, who “got here to the warm weather as fast as he could” and avid sports fan says, “I’m a huge football fan (Go Lions!). But please have your child participate safely. It’s so much easier and cheaper to protect the mouth than it is to fix it!”

Grand Parkway Pediatric Dental
Dr. Faisal M. Khan, DDS
832-222-TOTS (8687)
7830 W. Grand Parkway S, Suite 270
Richmond, TX 77406
www.grandparkwaypediatricdental.com

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