Protecting Your Mouth
If you think the best way to protect yourself from losing teeth is to wear a jock strap around your head, you're wrong. Try wearing a mouth guard. Mouth guards are mandatory in most parts of North America for sports like football, boxing, ice hockey, lacrosse and field hockey. But dentists and doctors believe that you should also be wearing a mouth guard for baseball, mountain biking, skateboarding and gymnastics. Wearing a mouth guard can be a bit uncomfortable at first but it's far less painful than having teeth or mouth surgery by some trigger happy dentist with a high vibration drill.
There are three basic types of mouth guards.
It's important to clean your mouth guard with soap and warm water. Keep it in a plastic case with lots of holes so it can dry - otherwise your guard will soon be home to tons of nasty bacteria. Don't ever wear someone else's mouth guard or you're likely to pick up some sort of mouth infection. If you wouldn't think of making out with the person, you definitely shouldn't be using their mouth guard either.
So, the next time you're playing a sport where you might get smoked in the mouth or face - think about using a mouth guard. Cuz you never know who the psycho behind that dentist drill might be.
Related Stories:
It’s almost time for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games! We wanted to find out which American athletes we should be watching as they go for the gold in 2010!
Every Yu-Gi-Oh! duelist has a dueling style - which one are you most like? Take this free online quiz and find out!