The All-Star Lineup Every Dental Professional Needs For Mouthguard Season

The time has come for athletes far and wide across the country, as the season is finally upon us – outdoor sports season. This is also meaningful to those off the courts and fields, such as dental professionals – it’s mouthguard season!

We here at Keystone Industries take pride in offering high-quality, custom-fit mouthguards that lead the market in saving teeth and money all at once. Since 1967, Pro-Form has been a role player in the oral protection community, giving teams and athletes around the world affordable equipment and materials.

Our Pro-Form materials are used from the highest levels of professional sports all the way through youth leagues, and offer the highest level of protection, retention, and comfort possible. On top of all this, athletes are also able to speak and breathe easier than most types of mouthguards on the market.

Take a look at some of these alarming statistical findings, just to show how important this level of protection is for athletes in any and all sports:

• 5 MILLION teeth are lost every year in sports activities (Source)
• 34% of sports injuries involve the face (Source)
• Dental injuries can cost more than 20X the preventative costs of a custom-fit Pro-Form mouthguard (Source)
• 200,000 injuries prevented annually by mouthguards (Source)

Now that you know how important this piece of protection is, let’s get into how the process is made simple for you. Below are two embedded videos from our YouTube channel that demonstrate the vacuum forming process and how to customize the mouthguard. Both processes can be done in either a dentist office or a dental lab.

In this first video, see how our vacuum former is able to make a custom-fit mouthguard out of one of our laminates:

In the second video, watch the tutorial of our centri-fuse kit, which easily puts custom logos, numbers, and letters onto an already-formed mouthguard:

Role players like these are vital in the process. But now you may be asking about what star players we have readily available to actually protect the teeth.

There are 200+ color and style laminates available in square or round. Your custom experience is endless, but can start with these popular choices in styles:

Dual-Color

Tri-Color

Glitter Guards

Tie Dye Guards

Fun Guards

 

Don’t forget of the most innovative way to select a mouthguard in the dental industry! If you have an iOS device with a camera, be sure to download the Keystone Industries app to try on a virtual mouthguard for yourself!

Choose between any color and style we offer, and see how it looks in your mouth inside the app. This is an excellent selling point for a patient in the chair of your office, and can increase sales with no effort at all. You won’t see an app like this in any app store!

   

There’s a lot more from where these come from, so checking out the Pro-Form section of our website would be best to find exactly what you’re looking for in thickness, style, color, shape, etc. and even clear and black straps, which are required in most youth sports leagues. There are many videos on our YouTube channel and in our Learning Center, as well as our most up-to-date pamphlets and brochures in our Catalog section available for your download.

For more information on Keystone Industries or any Keystone products, visit us online at www.keystoneindustries.com, call toll-free at 1 (800) 333-3131, or fax (856) 224-9444.

Keystone Industries, 480 South Democrat Road, Gibbstown, NJ 08027.

The Mouthpiece Guy Gives Fighters A Mouthful of Keystone Material

If you browse social media enough, you’ll come across some quality accounts and information that will amaze you, no matter what peaks your interest. Here at Keystone Industries, we take in pride in our Twitter presence with current customers, potential clients, and anyone else interested in the dental industry.

With that being said, we’ve recently connected with The Mouthpiece Guy, who creates top-quality mouthguards for his clients out of our resin sheets. These clients range from boxers to UFC fighters, but they all have one thing in common: they take some nasty hits to the face. “With power comes great responsibility”, and that’s where these mouthguards come into play.

Our mouthguard resin sheets are soft and ideal for maximum energy absorption, which adds to the quality protection these fighters need while competing. On top of getting the oral protection job done, the users love the comfort, feel, and look to these mouthpieces as well, as you can hear from video testimonies on The Mouthpiece Guy’s website.

It’s an all around win-win situation for The Mouthpiece Guy, his clients, and Keystone Industries. Check out some photos of the products below, and view them all on our Facebook page!

Courtesy: The Mouthpiece Guy

Courtesy: The Mouthpiece Guy

Courtesy: The Mouthpiece Guy

You can get more information on our mouthguard materials on our website or by calling 800-333-3131 and speaking with a customer service representative. Be sure to head over to The Mouthpiece Guy’s website to see other custom mouthguard designs, a list of fighters he’s worked with, and video testimonies from the clients themselves.

October is a big month for us all: dedicated to breast cancer awareness, dental hygiene

It’s a busy month of awareness all-around for the dental industry. Not only is the American Dental Hygiene Association running a month-long campaign for National Dental Hygiene Month (NDHM) to raise public awareness for good oral health, but October is also the month dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness as well, where you’ll see pink colors decked out everywhere to show support (including our own website).

On the AHDA’s website, there is an individual event page for everything related to NDHM. They’ve partnered with the W.M. Wrigley Company for the fifth consecutive year, focusing mainly on the four components of oral hygiene and ways to improve public awareness about bettering oral health. There is a “selfie” based contest being conducted as well as posters available to be downloaded to put online or in your office on the ADHA website. Below, you can watch a video announcement from ADHA President Kelli Swanson Jaecks on sponsoring the NDHM month and things to come.

As we all know through various companies and organizations support and promotion, October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The majority of people today have been affected by this horrible disease in some shape or form, which is why the spread of awareness and support is vital in helping fight back to find a cure. At Keystone Industries, the past couple of years we’ve sold pink breast cancer awareness-themed Pro-Form mouthguards with portions of the proceeds going towards breast cancer research. Athletes and dentists from all over have been thrilled with the performance and protection of these mouthguards, so showing this kind of support with it going to a good cause does indeed help out. This year, we took it up a notch, and made our whole website pink in support, too.

We’ve updated our website for the month of October in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Both of these calls for awareness this month are for good causes, and beneficiary to everyone inside and outside of the dental industry. Be sure to spread the word of the meaning of this month positively with friends on social media so we can help spread it even more! Oral health and breast cancer affects everyone’s lives, and it’s up to us to help make a change.

Are You Ready For Some Football? DDS Mary Lehmann Makes Sure The Stamford Knights Are!

Up in Stamford, CT, there was a high school football team that was in need of important protection before hitting the field for the first time this season. Dr. Maryann Lehmann, DDS stepped up to the task and called upon us here at Keystone Industries to help as well.

Dr. Lehmann has been fitting mouthguards for high school sports teams for years now, as she explains on her blog, even though she hasn’t been a big fan of the sport of football. However, oral protection outweighs her personal preferences, and giving to this team is what really mattered to Dr. Lehmann and Keystone, which is why we donated mouthguard materials to the Stamford Knights football team.

Below are some photos of team members wearing our Pro-Form mouthguards that Dr. Lehmann fitted them for. On her blog, Say Yes to the DDS!, you can read her full post on the experience and team.

 

You can find out more about our Pro-Form mouthguard material and accessory line on our website, keystoneind.com/en/home. Good luck this season, Stamford HS Knights!

The Push for Pro-Form: Importance of Custom Fit Mouthguards

As far as mouthguards go, the custom-fit options that dentists all over provide is an athlete’s best bet for mouth protection. It’s been estimated by the American Dental Association (ADA) that there are over 200,000 oral injuries each year that could have been totally avoidable if the person was wearing a mouthguard. With such a statistic out there, awareness for mouthguards is at an all-time high.

Anastasia Turchetta, RDH, explains in the video below how mouthguards are important for dental patients everywhere, and how high costs for injuries can be avoided by simply wearing a good mouthguard. Also, Turchetta touches on the different types of mouthguards, and how custom-fit, such as Pro-Form, set themselves on another level than the rest.

As you can hear Turchetta explain, there are various issues with mouthguards that are not custom-fit. From the stock guards making it hard to speak and breaht to overall not being comfortable, mouth protection is best served with a custom-fit guard such as Pro-Form.

Pro-Form mouthguards, manufactured in the United States by Keystone Industries, are high-quality custom-fit mouthguards designed with the best material on the market to protect athletes of all sports. As opposed to the boil-and-bites, Pro-Form mouthguards provide the necessary comfort and thickness with an ability to talk and breathe easily, and protection of all teeth including the posteriors.

Pictured here is one of our FunGuards, which come in different styles as well. How else can you have fun while protecting your mouth?

On top of the long-running track record of protection they provide, Keystone Pro-Form mouthguards can also be made in specific color schemes, designs, and have the addition of custom decals. Everyone wants to be like the pros, and they’re known for wearing these types of mouthguards. With advances in technology today, you can see what you look like with a Pro-Form mouthguard on with an app by Keystone! The app is available in the Apple App Store, and allows you to show your patients what they can look like with a certain color Pro-Form mouthguard.

To learn more and purchase Pro-Form mouthguards, please click here.

The Ultimate Guide to Oral Health [INFOGRAPHIC]

In this infographic provided to us by the American Dental Association, the best practices to maintaining excellent oral health are explained as visually as possible. Everything from the gear you need to picking a dentists, this graphic has you covered.

You can find a lot of products to help keeping a good oral health lifestyle for yourself and patients at your dental practice on our website, keystoneind.com.

Do you have any specific or different daily routines related to keeping good oral health? Let us know in the comments below.

Pro-Form Mouthguards: How Important Are They?

School is almost out, and summer is on its way in. This means one thing: busy as ever with multiple sports seasons during the best outdoor weather. With that in mind, you have to question: just how much protection are your athletes getting?

Whether you’re a coach for a high school football team or your watching your 10-year old daughter play soccer, protection and safety while playing sports is a must. One of the biggest (and most important) areas to protect is the athlete’s mouth, with a custom-fit mouthguard.

Why buy a custom-fit mouthguard when there’s boil-and-bite ones?

Although boil-and-bite mouthguards are the most commonly used today, they are not the most preferred by dentists. As mentioned in an article on Dentistry Today, these mouthguards “do not provide the proper thickness, comfort, or critical protection of the posterior teeth”. When you boil the mouthguard and begin to bite down on it, your teeth clamp down on the material and stretch it out, making it less thick. Over time, the material will break down, leaving less protection around the teeth.

Sure, it’s a cheap, simple way to have a mouthguard which somewhat fits the athlete’s mouth. However, most dentists agree that it does not get the job done in the best way, and can lead to oral and head injuries (which are the most common injuries in sports, by the way). Important ways properly fitted mouthguards protect the mouth are shown in the picture below, as well as some problems that may arise with the boil-and-bites.

Mouthguards provide numerous ways of protection. You’ll be protected even more if that mouthguard is fitted properly.

What is Pro-Form and why should I get it?

Pro-Form mouthguards, manufactured in the United States by Keystone Industries, are high-quality custom-fit mouthguards designed with the best material on the market to protect athletes of all sports. As opposed to the boil-and-bites, Pro-Form mouthguards provide the necessary comfort and thickness with an ability to talk and breathe easily, and protection of all teeth including the posteriors.

On top of the long-running track record of protection they provide, Keystone Pro-Form mouthguards can also be made in specific color schemes, designs, and have the addition of custom decals. What cooler incentive is there than that? Everyone wants to be like the pros, and they’re known for wearing these types of mouthguards.

These Pro-Form mouthguards are colorized to represent specific countries.

Tie dye colors are shown here, with the laminates they’re made from.

These require an impression cast of the patient’s dentition as the initial step. The mouthguard is then made from this cast. Vacuum formed guards are made from single or multilayered polyethylene. Other techniques include pressure lamination to sandwich material together under high pressure. Keystone also manufactures the vacuum forming machines.

To prove the importance of mouthguards and custom fitting them, an article from Fox News brings out information about teeth belonging to Olympic athletes over the years. From the amount of stress they’re under to the food they eat, teeth were not looking so good for the Olympians. To help out, there have been dental facilities at the Olympics in London, Sochi, and soon to be Rio de Janeiro in 2016. They’ve handed out over 500 mouthguards at the past two games for athletes who lost teeth and wanted to prevent losing teeth, and the initiative has been welcome warmly for the 2016 games.

To learn more and purchase Pro-Form mouthguards, please click here.

Dental care and your health

Dental care greatly affects your health. Here is an infographic on all the problems that can be related to poor oral health.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

 

Quick form of dental history

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

 

Smile! It’s World Smile Day!

It’s time to smile… go ahead, smile. We dare you. It’s good for you! Now that you’re smiling you should be happy to know you’re participating in World Smile Day!

The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD) has done extensive research on what it means to have a great smile. Nearly half of American adults (48 percent) think that the smile is the most memorable feature after first meeting someone. The smile is even more important the first think a person’s says, which only 25 percent of Americans say is the most memorable feature of a person.

Adults over the age of 50 are even more likely to remember a smile when first induced to someone (52 percent).  Even fewer adults are like to remember the person clothes (9 percent) or the way he or she smells (8 percent).

As you can see, smiles play such an important role on your identity and how you’re perceived by others. It’s important to keep good oral health habits and maintain a smile that’s please. That way you smile even bigger every day but especially today, World Smile Day.