Gum Shields - are they worth the money?

[katemiddletonsothermum]

The £40 ones you get via school, TBH.

DCs have the cheap ones from sports shops. They're average players who only make the D teams in rugby and hockey. They don't play for the local clubs so they use the mouth guards at school.

Now I feel guilty that I'm remoulding DS's mouthguard via hot water rather than having had it fitted professionally last June.

She didnt lose teeth btw, she had to leave due to injury and I did fleetingly wonder what the ebay market was for made to measure gum shields :o

Am crap at links on iPad but will try!

www.amazon.co.uk/Flavoured-Shield-Hockey-Martial-Boxing/dp/B00993JUNC - if it doesnt work - Amazon or Ebay. Just search for flavoured moutthguards.

DH has been using the cheaper ones for 30 years (boxing, rugby, doorman) and still has lovely teeth all in their right place. He says he'd get the middle of the range ones for his DS.

I spoke to our orthodontist about this.

Yes, a fully fitted one does give better protection.

But only for as long as the fit is good. Shedding a tooth or just growing both mean that the fit has changed and then there's no difference to boil-and-bite.

So once you have a secondary age pupil whose dentition has settled and isn't growing so quickly, and is playing faster games against big, strong opponents then they are worth it. Before that, probably not.

I also found my DC didn't lose things quite so often when older, which was another reason to hold off until older. It can take a few weeks to receive the mouth guard depending on time of year (always busy at start of rugby and hockey terms) and if the school has a 'no play' rule without one, you'll find yourself with boil-and-bite anyhow.

I use the boil and fit ones for my daughter. She plays Gaelic football. She's 10, so her teeth are still falling out and wobbling, I change them every few months. Hers are about 7.99, they're not allowed anywhere near a match without them.

Sports Direct are selling loads of them at reduced prices : DS / I just bought three!

Bought lovely all singing all dancing mouth guard from dentist in fab fluorescent colour - £70+. Worn religiously. Then a child in the lunch queue flapped her lunch tray one day when DD was bending down to pick up something she had dropped on the floor and ....the tray hit her in the face and snapped front tooth in half .. £600 of dental treatment so far, and counting... Don't know what the moral of this story is. Maybe "wear your mouth guard at all times" ?!? Or "wear it when in perilous situations such as lunch queues"...?!? It was nobody's fault - just a silly accident.

Boil and bite while their teeth are changing, replace frequently

Properly fitted ones once their teeth settle down

Orthodontist advised that the cheap ones are fine

Hello - thank you SO much for your orthodontist comments. Much appreciated.

Mind you, I was picking DS up from hockey camp today and I saw a boy with kitchen paper round his mouth dripping blood. He'd probably been whacked in the face nanoseconds after taking out his mouthguard. Figment it's sod's law, isn't it?

Thanks buda.

Proper fitted opro for DS who actually plays contact rugby . Apparently it's not just teeth but affects concussion injuries too and ?ith the new info re dementia post head injury in early middle age in sportsmen that's enough to justify it for me ( nb this includes footballers from heading the ball)

DS still has teeth. He wouldn't have if it weren't for his mouth guard. Yes had many boots to the face in rugby and , in the one hockey match he ever played , a ball to the mouth which meant he was off school as the duck pout meant he dribbled when he ate/drank let aking spoke for several days. Teeth were fine though.

Double standards perhaps but dd2 played my sort of hockey - fannying around ,staying well away from any action. She had boil and bite opro.