One Hit Can Cost More Than a Season
A single impact to the mouth during a game can knock out a tooth, fracture a jaw, lacerate soft tissue, or crack a crown that took months to place. The American Dental Association estimates that up to one-third of all dental injuries are sports-related, and athletes who play without a mouthguard are 60 times more likely to suffer a dental injury than those who wear one. Patients from Hollywood Park and Cross Mountain bring their athletes to Fountain of Youth Dental because Dr. Cappetta, DDS, a member of the Academy of General Dentistry with over 35 years of general dentistry experience, provides custom-fitted sports mouthguards as part of his general dentistry services for patients of all ages.
A dental injury sustained during a sport is not just painful in the moment. A knocked-out tooth requires immediate reimplantation or a replacement that costs thousands of dollars and takes months to complete. A fractured jaw may require surgery and weeks of recovery. Cracked or chipped teeth often need crowns, veneers, or bonding to restore. The cost of a custom sports mouthguard is a small fraction of any one of these outcomes, which is why the ADA has recommended mouthguards as essential athletic equipment for over 50 years.
Which Sports Require a Mouthguard
Contact sports are the obvious candidates but the list of activities where dental injuries occur regularly goes well beyond football and hockey. Any sport or activity that involves a risk of impact to the face warrants a mouthguard regardless of whether it is formally classified as a contact sport.
The ADA recommends mouthguards for football, hockey, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, baseball and softball, volleyball, wrestling, martial arts, boxing, gymnastics, skateboarding, BMX riding, and mountain biking. Basketball and baseball produce some of the highest rates of dental injuries despite not being classified as full-contact sports because players frequently take elbows, balls, and equipment to the face at speed. Young athletes whose permanent teeth are still developing face additional risk because a tooth lost before full root development is harder to replace than one lost in adulthood. Dr. Cappetta fits mouthguards for patients of all ages and accommodates athletes who wear braces or have existing dental restorations.
What Makes a Dental Injury So Costly
Most patients underestimate the long-term cost of an untreated or poorly treated dental injury. A knocked-out tooth that is not reimplanted within an hour typically cannot be saved. The replacement options, a dental implant or a bridge, each require significant treatment time and cost. A cracked tooth may be symptom-free for months before the fracture deepens and reaches the nerve, at which point a root canal and crown become necessary.
Beyond the financial cost, dental injuries affect quality of life during recovery. Missing or fractured front teeth change the way a patient speaks, chews, and presents socially. Young athletes dealing with dental injury during a competitive season often face disrupted training schedules and reduced confidence. Dr. Cappetta has restored dental injuries from sports accidents that could have been prevented entirely with a properly fitted mouthguard. The pattern he sees most often is a patient who avoided the mouthguard because it was uncomfortable or bulky, which is almost always a description of an over-the-counter guard, not a custom one.
