Facts from the National Youth Sports Foundation for Safety
- Dental injuries are the most common type of orofacial injury sustained during participation in sports; the majority of these dental injuries are preventable.
- An athlete is 60 times more likely to sustain damage to the teeth when not wearing a protective mouthguard.
- The cost of a fractured tooth is many times greater than the cost of a dentist diagnosed and designed professionally made mouthguard.
- Every athlete involved in contact sport has about a 10% chance per season of an orofacial injury, or a 33-56% chance during an athletic career.
- The cost to replant a tooth and the follow-up dental treatment is about $5000.
- Victims of knocked out teeth who do not have a tooth properly preserved or replanted may face lifetime dental costs of $15,000-$20,000/tooth, hours in the dental chair, and the possible development of other dental problems such as periodontal disease.
- It is estimated that faceguards and mouthguards prevent approximately 200,000 injuries each year in high school and college football.
- The stock mouthguard which is bought at sports stores without any individual fitting, provide only a low level of protection, if any. If the wearer is rendered unconscious, there is a risk the mouthguard may lodge in the throat potentially causing an airway obstruction.
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