Sports Equipment

Del Rossi G, Lisman P, Leyte-Vidal M. A Preliminary Report of Structural Changes to Mouthguards During 1 Season of
High School Football. Journal Of Athletic Training. January 2007;42(1):47-50. Available from:
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&hid=122&sid=52da2bba-2ec8-43c9-a4ec-
27343115be1c%40sessionmgr111. Accessed November 20, 2011.
Population: Hypothesis: By understanding the structural changes of a mouthguard over time, it equips
the Athletic Trainer with the knowledge to prevent injury to the athlete that may be linked to changes
made by wear and tear of the mouthguard. Mouthguards can be prone to wear and tear which can
dramatically change the structure over time. This is why the Academy for Sports Dentistry supports the
use of mouthguards that are custom fabricated, properly fitted, and thick in size so that the mouthguard
is able to outlast one full season of a given sport. In this experiment, the participants are fifteen high
school varsity football players between the ages of fifteen and seventeen who were each given the same
type of mouthguard. Intervention: This was a repeated-measure, case-series study that began with the
participants each receiving the same type of custom-fabricated mouthguard. They had to wear this
mouthguard throughout the whole season. The season was twelve weeks long and consisted of seven
games. Measures of the mouthguard were taken from the Occlusal surface and the Labial surface of the
mouth when the participants imprinted their teeth to form the mouthguard. Also, measurements from
the mouthguard channel and shape retention on the sides of the mouthguards were included.
Measurements were obtained from a spring-loaded caliper gauge that was used twice to measure
accuracy and the averages of the measurements were taken. Comparison: The goal of this experiment is
to examine the change in structure of custom-fabricated mouthguards during one complete football
season. By analyzing the results, it hopes to prevent the athlete from injury that is caused by the
deterioration of the mouthguard. Outcome: In the experiment, only eleven participants completed the
study, as the other four participants lost their mouthguards during the season. Basing the results on the
eleven participants, the results of the Labial surface and the Occlusal surface decreased in thickness. The
labial thickness decreased by 16% from the beginning to the season to the middle of the season. Then
by the end of the season it decreased another 2% to 3%. The Occlusal surface decreased by 23% to 26%
from preseason to midseason. For both surfaces, the most change in thickness occurred during the
beginning of the season to midseason. During preseason, mouthguard channel width was 22.27mm.
During midseason, channel width was 24.78mm and at the end of the season the width was 25.06mm.
My interpretation: I thought the article was interesting and very informative and not bias to a certain
perspective. However, it was mentioned in the article that more research was needed to be done on
determining the wearing length of the mouthguard, which is an important factor that was left out of the
research. If there is no known size approximation, then it would be hard to determine whether the
mouthguard is safe to wear or not. I believe as an Athletic Trainer, there should be frequent inspections
of mouthguards to ensure that there is nothing wrong with the equipment and that it properly fitting. By
inspecting the mouthguard frequently, it can be determined if a new mouth guard is needed and protect
the athlete from injury, such as concussions, caused by equipment malfunction.