GUMSHIELDS IN THE PRESS

Essential gear for rugby. Bespoke gumshield from £31

A properly fitted gumshield that’s moulded to your mouth is essential to protect your teeth. A dentist will make one for you, but a number of websites, such as GuardKit, offer the same service for a lower price. First you are sent a kit to take an impression of your teeth. You send this back to GuardKit, which will make a bespoke gumshield for you in its dental laboratory.

(The Sunday Times, August 2007) Link to the Sunday Times

Wearing a mouthguard does not seem to interfere with athletes' performance, at least when the device is custom-fit, a study suggests.

(International Journal of Sports Medicine, May 2008)

An estimated 6000 teenage dental sports injuries occur each year because they don’t wear protective gumshields.

(England hockey factsheet 9)

"First of all, it is essential to educate the public that stock and boil and bite gumshields bought at sporting good stores do not provide the optimum treatment expected by the athlete"
(www.sportsdentistry.com)

The cost to repair the damage caused by a sports injury can easily be in the range of 10 to 30 times the cost of custom gum shields.

(Animated-Teeth.com)

The barriers to providing mouth protection were mainly financial combined with the difficulties of taking the child to the dentist. If the results from this small study are representative of the current situation, with regard to the wearing of gum shields by professional players and children, it appears that there is a need for all those involved to ensure that rugby-playing children wear gumshields.

(Prim Dent Care. 2007 Jul)

"Although wearing gumshields is currently not in the regulations of playing hockey they are strongly recommended and
parents are urged to take as many precautions when it comes to protecting injury to their children in the game."

(Englandhockey.co.uk)

Exercise Capacity in Athletes with gumshields

The present study demonstrated that custom-made gums hields do not significantly affect or reduce maximum exercise performance of athletes.

(Int J Sports Med. 2007 Jul 5)

"Parents are advised to remember that the cost of custom gum shields is considerably cheaper than the cost of repairing or replacing broken teeth."

(Englandhockey.co.uk)

"The dental profession unanimously supports the use of gumshields in a variety of sports activities. More than 200,000 injuries to the mouth and jaw occur each year."

(AGD, Academy of General Dentistry)

"Dental injuries and their consequences could be almost totally prevented by the use of gumshields."
(University of Manchester Dental Hospital)

"Coaches and dentist should encourage amateur and professional players of most sports to obtain and use well fitting gumshields to prevent the seriousness and incidence of injury"
(Journal of American Dental Association)