Rugby World Cup – The Importance Of Mouthguards

With the 18th Rugby World Cup season underway everyone is talking about who’s favourite to win. Alongside all the talk and hype it’s predicted that there will be an upsurge in participation especially amongst children which could lead to serious dental health issues.

It’s for this reason that the British Dental Health Foundation issued a reminder urging everyone taking up the sport to make sure they wear a mouthguard as this is an essential piece of safety in what is a very rough sport. Not wearing a mouth guard can result in injuries to lips, cheeks, tongue and jaw but most importantly to us at the Natural Smile; teeth being cracked or knocked out which could lead to horrendous pain and a lifetime of extensive and possibly expensive treatment.

Dr Nigel Carter the Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation commented that: “The Rugby World Cup is a fantastic occasion for Britain and also a fantastic arena for us to spread our safety message. When you see your team run out on that pitch, every single one of them will be wearing a mouth guard, they would think it crazy not to. Mouthguards for children, therefore, should not be optional; they should be one of the first things in the kit bag. Rugby by its very nature is very physical and accidents happen, sporting injuries are a leading cause of adults losing teeth. Wearing a mouth guard is a simple and cheap way of ensuring kids safety”.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) regulations have acknowledged the importance of mouthguards and have made them compulsory for all players above school level who are involved in rugby. If these players have to wear them then there really is no excuse for it not to be compulsory for school children. Why stop there; if we think of other games such as cricket, hockey, football, American football and boxing – any sport really which can cause broken and damaged teeth should make their players wear mouthguards. You wouldn’t let your child ride a bicycle on the main road without a helmet would you?

You can buy a regular mouth guard from a variety of places, but here at the Natural Smile we will provide you with a custom-made mouth guard which will be  molded to your own mouth and costs a mere £65. We have a variety of colours for you to choose from to make it more fun – you will agree that this is a relatively small amount of money if you consider not wearing one could lead to a lifetime of dental work!

When wearing a custom-made mouthguard it fits to your mouth exactly and not only protects your teeth and gums but can also prevent damage to the jaw, neck and even brain – preventing against concussions.

Dr Carter continues by saying: “We must take cues from other nations. New Zealand rugby saw a 43 per cent reduction in dental injuries after referees were given powers to ensure that all domestic rugby players of all ages must wear mouthguards.”

“We all take our teeth for granted. Often, it is only when we are faced with the reality of losing one, or several, that we realise just how important they are.

“Getting a child to wear a mouthguard shouldn’t prove difficult either, just point at their favourite player and they will be wearing one, as role models rugby players are great advocates for mouthguards. You can also get them in children’s favourite team colours too, so they can support their team with pride when they next run on to the pitch.”

So if you are playing rugby or your son/daughter is, there’s really no reason to call us and get a custom made mouthguard made!

Surgery two is open for business!

Well, it’s been about 9 years in the making but we finally have our second surgery open and working, and it’s gone from the finalised design back in 2005:

To this, (where the picture is looking right through where the new surgery is now)

To this, where the stud-work is up: and plaster is on: (not sure what that bath is doing there?)

To our beautiful new treatment room, where we are happily treating patients!

It’s been a long hard road and when the fitting took place during the middle of April we had a few issues to overcome, like in all projects but we are all delighted with the final outcome and hope that you will be too!

Suffer the little children..

Latest survey on our children’s dental health makes for depressing reading..

The latest large scale children’s dental health survey’s report into the dental health of children in England Wales and Northern Ireland were released last week and despite some modest improvements in some areas of children’s oral health the overwhelming picture is still pretty bleak. These results pertain to 2013 with the previous data being gathered in 2003, so they are a little behind but it’s extremely disappointing to see that around 33% of 12-year-olds and 46% of 15-year-olds have tooth decay.

The survey is data collection only it does not suggest any reasons or suggest any remedies to the problems, but it is widely believed that the amount of added sugar taken through diet is a significant factor.

There are lots ways in which to combat tooth decay in children and in adults for that matter, and some of those advocating them give powerful and persuasive arguments,  Steven Hancocks writing in the British dental journal argues strongly the case for fluoride in the water supply consistently, and I can understand that perspective, (more on our view on fluoride later) but ultimately for me I think that the danger of this approach alone is that it can remove the responsibility of the individual.  No one is born with tooth decay, and I think the way to change these depressing numbers of tooth decay in our children has to be firstly through education.  In the long term it is only in this way that the real goal of individuals managing their own oral health will be achieved, after all even if we conquered our recent addiction to sugar, there will always be some other threat to our oral health and only through good education is an individual equipped with the necessary skills to deal with whatever the ‘new sugar ‘is.

But I guess that even the most optimistic side of me can’t believe that this will be enough by itself, indeed this isn’t just a problem for us in the UK,  a recent health study showed the number one reason why children visited a hospital in New Zealand in 2014 was to get their teeth removed under general anaesthetic. Whilst I think that ultimately education is the best long term solution I think we may also need the additional help provided by water fluoridisation.

For more information on the survey please have a look here. http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/03March/Pages/are-half-of-childrens-teeth-rotten.aspx

To have a look at the case for water fluoridisation mentioned above  have a look here http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v218/n5/full/sj.bdj.2015.149.html

And to read more depressing news on the state of children’s teeth in New Zealand have a read here http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/67402054/rise-in-bad-baby-teeth-concerns-dentists

Ventilation heralds the start of the second surgery!

Its taken a long time to get here but we are finally on the verge of beginning the work on the second surgery.  That first stage is to install some form of ventilation into the room, it having no windows.  This part of the process itself has taken a long time since we have a limited space and we wanted to  make sure that the ventilation unit we used was as environmentally friendly  that we could make it within the confines of the space limitations, this means that the unit has heat recovery which reduces energy but increases the size of it.

After working through different designs and proposal we have finally got a start date for the work, its not until the very beginning of march but it is all planned in and we can begin the next phase of work, which is the dental chair and the the cabinets.

Its an exciting time for us and hopefully will enable us to be able to offer both hygienist appointments and dental appointments on the same day as well as additional treatments such as TMJ massage amongst others.

The only downside is that I loose my dark room to lie in when it all gets too much…