Sports Mouthguards for Houston Kids: A Parent’s Quick Guide

Football, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, hockey. If your child plays any of them in Houston, a mouthguard is the cheapest piece of safety equipment you will buy this season. Done well, it protects teeth, lips, tongue, and to a meaningful extent the brain. Done poorly, or skipped, the cost of fixing the next chipped front tooth dwarfs the price of a custom guard.

Here is the parent-version of what we tell families at the office.

What sports actually need mouthguards

The American Dental Association recommends mouthguards for any sport with contact or significant fall risk. The list usually includes:

• Football, hockey, lacrosse, rugby, boxing, mixed martial arts. These typically require guards by rule.
• Basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball, wrestling, water polo. These do not always require them but the dental injury rates are high enough that we strongly recommend them.
• Skateboarding, BMX, mountain biking, gymnastics. Less obvious but real. Falls onto the face are common.

For Houston families, basketball and soccer are the two sports we see the most preventable dental injuries from, partly because mouthguards are not required and partly because the risk is genuinely underrated.

The three types of mouthguards

Stock guards

Pre-formed, one-size-fits-many guards you can buy off a shelf. They are inexpensive and they are a meaningful step up from nothing. They tend to be bulky, they interfere with breathing and talking, and kids often spit them out partway through a game. Better than none. Not what we recommend long term.

Boil-and-bite guards

You heat the guard in hot water, place it in the mouth, and bite to form an impression. Most sporting-goods-store guards are this style. Fit is better than stock guards but still imperfect. The material thins where the bite compresses it. Lifespan is typically a single season for a growing kid.

Custom guards

Made from an impression of your child's actual teeth, fabricated in a dental lab on a stone model. The fit is precise. The thickness is uniform where it needs to be. The guard stays in place during contact and does not interfere with breathing or speaking. Most kids forget they are wearing it within a few minutes.

Custom guards are the type we make at Hermann Park Smiles. The trade-off is cost and one visit for the impression plus a pickup visit. For a kid playing a season or longer of contact sport, the math is clearly in favor of custom.

What a custom guard actually prevents

Three categories of injury:

• Dental. Chipped, fractured, or knocked-out teeth. The cost of restoring a single fractured front tooth (composite, veneer, or crown depending on severity) usually exceeds the cost of a custom guard by a wide margin. A knocked-out tooth involves emergency care, splinting, and a high likelihood of future root canal therapy.
• Soft tissue. Lip lacerations, tongue bites, and jaw bruising. A guard absorbs much of the impact before it reaches the soft tissue.
• Concussion risk. Mouthguards do not eliminate concussion risk, and any claim that they do is overreach. There is reasonable evidence that they reduce the severity of certain impact transmissions through the jaw. We treat them as part of an overall protection strategy, not a magic shield.

For kids with braces or growing teeth

Two situations come up often in our practice.

Orthodontics. A custom guard for a kid with braces is built to accommodate the brackets and to allow some tooth movement during the orthodontic phase. Boil-and-bite guards usually do not fit well over braces.

Mixed dentition. Kids losing baby teeth and growing in permanent teeth need their guard refit more often than an adult would. We typically suggest a new guard at the start of each sports season for kids in the 7 to 13 range, when the bite is changing fastest.

Care and replacement

• Rinse with cool water after every use. Hot water warps the material.
• Brush it with a toothbrush and a small amount of toothpaste once a day.
• Store it in a ventilated case. Not in a closed gym bag pocket.
• Bring it to your child’s regular cleaning visits so we can check fit and condition.
• Replace at the first sign of significant wear, distortion, or a noticeable fit change.

How to get a custom guard at Hermann Park Smiles

The process is one short visit and one quick pickup.

1. Impression visit. We take a digital scan or a quick traditional impression. 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Lab turnaround. Usually 7 to 10 days.
3. Pickup and fit check. Your child tries it on, we verify the fit and make any adjustments, and you are done.

If your child has a sports physical scheduled, we can usually coordinate the impression visit at the same time as a regular cleaning to save you a trip.

Frequently asked questions

What age should a kid get a custom mouthguard?

As soon as they start playing organized contact or fall-risk sports, which for many Houston kids is around age 6 or 7 with soccer and flag football leagues.

How much does a custom mouthguard cost?

Custom mouthguard pricing varies by lab and design. Many dental plans do not cover them, but the cost is typically a fraction of the cost of restoring one fractured front tooth. We will give you a price during the consult so there are no surprises.

Can my child use the same guard for multiple sports?

Often yes, if the contact level is similar. A football guard is typically thicker than a basketball guard. We will recommend the right thickness for your child's sport.

Will the guard interfere with breathing?

A well-fitted custom guard should not. If your child is struggling to breathe with the guard in, the fit needs to be checked.

Ready to get your kid set up?

Call us at (713) 522-1717 to schedule the impression, or reach out through our contact page. We see kids and families from across the Houston Inner Loop including West University Place, Bellaire, the Texas Medical Center, and the Museum District. You can learn more about our family approach on our family dentist page and our pediatric dentist page.