How to Take Care of Braces While Playing Sports?

For sport fans, fall is one of the best times of the year. We have weekend nights out, soccer, fall ball, the beginning of season of NBA, and many more! If you’re on a school or community team and you’re getting ready for some autumn game time, you may be worried that putting on braces will keep you stuck on the sidelines. This is a prevalent problem for patients who frequently engage in sports. You can ask your orthodontist in OKC to know what to do with braces while playing sports.

Throughout the orthodontic phase, you will still be able to engage in athletics with brace therapy as usual. There are several professional athletes who have gone for braces to straighten their teeth and played every single game. From Dwight Howard to Venus Williams to Cristiano Ronaldo, everyone has this experience. While you may not need to hang up your shirt just yet, you will need to be cautious with your braces to prevent damaging them or damaging your teeth or mouth. That’s double for anyone who regularly plays contact sports!

Ways to safeguard your braces while playing the
sports you enjoy, keep reading below. 

Sport-related Injuries 

It’s not unusual for an athlete to experience mouth and jaw injuries. This is one of the most prevalent fields of injury among individuals who frequently engage in sports. That’s why protecting your smile becomes extra essential. A fixed orthodontic appliance like braces improves your risk of oral injury, particularly when your mouth or braces are struck by a ball or other player.

These wounds may not be life-threatening, but they may be very painful, cause severe harm, and may be expensive to solve. We have seen injuries like:

• lacerations to the cheeks, lips, and tongue
• chipped or broken teeth
• displacement of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
• root fractures in our braces

The braces and wires are designed to add another component to these types of wounds. Bent wires and broken braces are not uncommon and can cut or otherwise injure the inner portion of your mouth with a crash. When it goes to protecting your teeth, mouth, and braces while playing in a physical activity, a mouthguard is the absolute best choice. Although we highly encourage our brace patients to invest in an orthodontic model, even a fundamental mouthguard will provide some amount of safety.

Mouthguards are readily available, easy to use and extremely efficient in stopping harm and injury to your braces and mouth. While they are particularly helpful for high-contact sports such as football or hockey, we suggest that you wear one even if you only engage in light contact or low-impact sports. To irritate your mouth, or to cause small cuts to your gums and the inside of your cheeks, it only requires a tiny quantity of pressure on your braces.

Whatever the ways are, you can always go for braces in OKC from Orthodontic Arts.

**Disclaimer: The above post is not intended to be medical advice or create a relationship between doctor and patient.

Orthodontic Arts, your number one Orthodontist in OKC. Our Certified Orthodontist provides the latest and greatest Orthodontic practices to our clients in the OKC and Midtown area. Orthodontic Arts is the best place for child and teen orthodontics as well as adult orthodontics. Be sure to ask about Invisalign and invisible braces! Contact us today at (405) 604-3745 or request an appointment.