The Oral Health Foundation advises that mouthguards should be worn at all times while participating in any sport that involves physical contact or moving objects¹.

Participating in sporting activities greatly increases your risk of dental and orofacial trauma. During a single season of play, athletes have a 10% chance of sustaining an injury to the face or mouth². However, extensive research shows that wearing a mouthguard significantly reduces the risk of dental and orofacial injury³. As well as reducing oral injuries, mouthguards act to retain any fractured or loosened teeth thus preventing their loss, inhalation or ingestion, and they have also been shown to reduce the risk of concussion⁴, though this is under some debate.

There are four basic types of mouthguards: stock, boil-and-bite, custom-made vacuum-formed and custom-made pressure-formed, and they do not provide equal levels of protection. Research shows that custom-made mouthguards offer the best protection against dental and orofacial injury⁵, with pressure-formed mouthguards providing the greatest security⁶. As well as superior safety, custom-made mouthguards also show better retention and comfort compared to other types of mouthguards.

However, even custom-made sports mouthguards can differ in how effective they are. For the greatest protection, a custom-made pressure-formed mouthguard of sufficient thickness and rigidity is required⁷. Stock and boil-and-bite mouthguards are not tight-fitting enough and do not have adequate thickness in all areas, often lacking in thickness in the areas that it is needed most.