Mouthguards: Which Type, Who Needs One, and How to Look After It

• A mouthguard is a small, inexpensive thing that sits between a tooth and a badly aimed elbow.
• There are three types, and the difference between them is mostly fit.
• The best one is not the most expensive one. It is the one that fits, does not restrict breathing, stays in, and lets the wearer talk.
• It is worn at training as well as on game day, and for more activities than most people think.
• And it is useless if it is not looked after, which takes about a minute.

The season is starting, the gear list has a mouthguard somewhere near the bottom, and nobody has told you which one to buy or whether it matters. It matters, but not in the way the shelf display suggests. This is a small decision with a short set of facts behind it, and once you know them, the choice becomes easy. Here is what a mouthguard is for, the three types, who needs one, and how to look after it so it keeps doing its job.

What it is actually for

Start with the plain version from the state health department’s own information. A mouthguard fits snugly over the teeth to help prevent injuries to the teeth and mouth.

What it does in a knock, in the same source’s terms: it cushions a strong blow to the face, it acts as a shock absorber that protects the teeth and the lower jaw from breaking, and it prevents the wearer accidentally biting their lips, tongue or cheeks. That is the whole mechanism. No mystery, and no magic.

The source’s own examples of what happens without one are short. A misdirected elbow in a basketball game. A fall off a skateboard. And the outcomes it names for those moments: chipped or broken teeth, nerve damage to a tooth, or tooth loss. Nothing there is dramatic for its own sake, and none of it is rare.

One honest note on the scale of it. Most knocks do nothing at all, which is exactly why people skip the mouthguard, and the ones that do something tend to be the expensive sort of problem. If a fear of the dentist’s chair is part of why this decision keeps sliding down the list, the site’s 5 Common Myths About Root Canal Treatment Debunked! is a friendlier read than most search results, and worth five minutes before the season starts.

The three types, and the test that actually matters

Three kinds, and the honest ranking is about fit rather than price.

Stock or ready-made guards, sold at sports stores and chemists. Cheap, pre-formed, and the health department’s own note is that they often cannot be made to fit the mouth properly. That is not a scandal, it is a description of a shelf product.

Boil-and-bite guards, softened in hot water and shaped by the wearer at home. These are a real improvement on stock when they are done patiently, and a soft, ill-fitting lump when they are not. The instructions are on the packet, and the patience is on you.

Custom guards, made by a dental practitioner from an impression of the wearer’s teeth. The source says this provides the best comfort and fit, and it is the version built around the specific mouth it will sit in, which is the appointment a Perth dental practice with clinics in Wanneroo and Mount Lawley that makes mouthguards books most often before a season starts.

Now the turn, and it is the reason this section exists: the cheap one is not automatically the worse choice, and the expensive one is not automatically the right one. The source’s own test is what decides it, and a reader can check every part of it in about ten seconds at the counter. The mouthguard should be fitted to the mouth, not restrict breathing, be stable, be comfortable, allow the wearer to talk, and not cause choking. A parent can check the last few by asking the child to say a sentence and take a breath. If it fails any of them, it is the wrong guard, whatever it cost. Cost is the last thing to look at, not the first.

Who needs one, and for what

Broader than most people expect, in the source’s own framing: anyone who plays a sport that carries a major risk of a knock to the face. And here is the part that gets missed: it should be worn while playing and while training, not only on game day. Training is where the most hours happen, which makes it the exposure nobody counts.

Then the activities on the source’s list that are not team sports at all. Rollerblading. Skateboarding. Mountain bike riding. Trampolining. Horse riding. If any of those fill a weekend in your household, the mouthguard conversation applies there too.

Two specifics for particular readers. Braces are not a complication here, they are a covered case: a mouthguard can be made to fit over braces, where it cushions between the braces and the cheek or the lips, which is a relief for the readers most likely to be told they cannot play. And for the adult who plays socially rather than competitively, the source’s advice does not draw a line between the two. A Saturday game is still a game, and the level of the match does not change what an elbow does.

Looking after it, in four steps

The section nobody writes, and it takes about a minute.

Before it goes in: rinse it with mouthwash or a mild antiseptic, then with water. After it comes out: wash it with mild soap and cold water, then dry it, and store it in a rigid box away from heat.

Then four consequences, which follow from the source rather than being printed on it. Heat is what ruins a mouthguard, so it does not live on a car dashboard, in a hot car, or in a dishwasher, and it is not re-boiled once it has been fitted. Do not share one, because it goes in a mouth. That one needs no explanation, and it gets none. Check it before each season for chewing, cracks, or a fit that has gone soft and loose. And if anything seems wrong with it, or with the mouth it sits in, ring the dental practice, which is the source’s own closing line.

One last thought to finish the section. A guard that lives loose at the bottom of a sports bag, uncleaned, is a guard that will not be worn, and a guard that is not worn protects nothing. The rigid box is not a fussy detail. It is the difference between gear and clutter.

When a child needs a new one

A growing mouth is the main reason, and the source states it plainly: as the mouth grows, a new mouthguard is needed. That gives a child’s guard a working life measured in seasons rather than years, which is worth knowing before you choose what to buy.

The other reasons, one line each. It has been chewed through or bitten flat. It has gone soft or loose after heat or a hot wash. It was bought before the braces went on, or before they came off. It has been lost, which is common and not a reason for a lecture. And the child has moved to a different sport, or a different level of contact, and the old guard no longer matches the job.

And the honest line for parents weighing it up: a guard that no longer fits is not a cheaper version of a guard that does. It is a piece of plastic in a bag, and the fit was the entire point. A new guard, fitted properly, is the smaller problem in every version of that story.

A mouthguard is not a night guard

A short section, because the search results on this topic mix two different devices together.

They do different jobs. A sports mouthguard is worn during activity to cushion an impact. A night guard is worn while sleeping, for a different reason entirely. They are made differently, they fit differently, and they are for different problems entirely. This article is about the sports one.

One thing worth saying clearly, though. If a reader is waking with a sore jaw, worn teeth or a headache, that is a conversation with a dentist about what is actually happening, not a reason to buy a sports guard from the chemist. The two should not be swapped, in either direction. That is as far as this piece goes on the subject, and it is deliberately far enough.

Before the season starts

Short and ordered, so a parent or a player can act on it this week.

Get the guard before the first training session, not before the first game, because training is where the source says it should be worn as well. Check the list at the counter: fitted, breathing, stable, comfortable, can talk. Do not buy the one the child will not wear, whichever type that turns out to be. Label it, and keep it in a rigid box, out of the heat. Look at it at the start of every season, and replace it when the mouth has grown or the guard has had enough.

And the closing thought, which is the whole case for the thing: a mouthguard is one of the few pieces of protective gear a player can lose and simply replace. The entire point of it is the five seconds it is asked to do its job.

Sources consulted: HealthyWA information on mouthguards.