Mouthguard Efficacy in Sports-Related Dental Injuries
Summary
Sports‐related impacts to the jaw and facial region pose a significant risk of dental fractures, tooth avulsion, and soft‐tissue trauma. Mouthguards serve as a frontline defence by attenuating and redistributing impact forces, reducing the likelihood and severity of orodental injuries. Traditionally fabricated from ethylene–vinyl acetate (EVA) via thermoforming, mouthguards range from stock and boil-and-bite designs to fully custom devices fashioned on dental impressions or intraoral scans. Customised devices consistently outperform generic types in fit, comfort and energy absorption, yet their cost and fabrication time can limit widespread adoption. Recent advances marry computer-aided design with additive manufacturing, enabling multi-material structures and region-specific stiffness profiles that further optimise force dissipation while maintaining wearer comfort. Across contact and collision sports, properly designed mouthguards have been shown to reduce peak transmitted forces, lower impulse values and attenuate strain on individual teeth, underscoring their global importance in injury prevention strategies.
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Mouthguard Efficacy in Sports-Related Dental Injuries publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in mouthguard efficacy in sports-related dental injuries across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Peak force: Maximum instantaneous force transmitted through the mouthguard during an impact event.
Impulse: The time integral of force over the duration of impact, representing the total momentum transfer.
Finite element model (FEM): A numerical method that subdivides a structure into discrete elements to predict stress, strain and deformation under load.
Ethylene–vinyl acetate (EVA): A copolymer widely used in mouthguard fabrication, prized for its flexibility and energy-absorbing characteristics.
Additive manufacturing: Layer-by-layer fabrication technique, such as stereolithography or fused deposition modelling, enabling complex geometries and material combinations.
References
- A new approach to the design and fabrication of customized multi-material mouthguards to maximize athletes' safety and comfort. Journal of Manufacturing Processes (2025).
- On the protectiveness of additively manufactured mouthguards. Materials & Design (2023).
- Design of Customized Mouthguards with Superior Protection Using Digital-Based Technologies and Impact Tests. Sports Medicine - Open (2024).
- Endodontic sequelae associated with repetitive impacts to the dentofacial region during boxing activities. International Endodontic Journal (2024).
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