Just facts: Dental injuries are more common than you think

Dental injuries, especially with athletes, are quite common. One of the best devices to protect athletes from injuries is using a custom mouthguard.

Here are some statistics and facts on dental injures from sports.

More than 5 million teeth are injured/knocked out every year
Dental injuries result in nearly $500 million spent on replacing teeth
13-39% of all dental injuries are related to sports
Sporting activities cause the greatest percentage of dental traumatic injuries in teens
50% of all children and teens will suffer at least one traumatic injury to a tooth by the time they graduate high school
Broken teeth, neck injuries and abrasions in the mouth are very common among athletes
These injuries account for more than 600,000 emergency room visits a year
Young men suffer traumatic tooth injuries 2-3 times more often than young women
Sports related injuries account for 3 times more facial/dental injuries than violence or traffic accidents
Pre-teens and teens have the highest number of sports related dental injuries, with the top 3 sports being:
- Basketball
- Biking and
- Hockey
Basketball players have in injury potential 13 times that of football players
Risks for athletes include:
- Suffering a fall during competition
- Contact from elbows, hands, arms
- Contact from flying equipment
Use of a mouth guard is essential to lower the risk of dental injury in sports
Athletes are 60 times more likely to suffer harm to the teeth when not wearing a mouth guard
80% of traumatic dental injuries occur to the top front teeth