Sports Dentistry

Sports dentistry is the prevention and treatment of dental injuries and related oral diseases, as well as the sharing of information and equipment designed to help protect the teeth, mouth, jaw and face of an athlete. Injuries to the teeth and mouth are common among athletes of all ages. It is important to protect your smile while playing sports for aesthetics as well as your health.

Common dental injuries in sports include:

  • Knocked out tooth or teeth
  • Chipped tooth or teeth
  • Displaced teeth

Tooth Knocked Out:

  • Time is the most important factor when trying to save a tooth, so get to our dentists as soon as possible. In general, there is a 30-minute window of opportunity to re-implant the tooth in the socket.
  • Do not try to re-implant the tooth yourself.
  • The best liquid to transport tooth in is cold milk. If milk is not available, use saliva (if possible), saline or, if nothing else is available, water.
  • Do not let the tooth dry out and avoid wrapping it in anything.
  • Do not touch the tooth root if you can avoid it.
  • Primary teeth, often called “baby-teeth,” are generally not re-implanted.

Tooth Chipped or Cracked:

  • Save the fractured portion of your tooth if you can and store it in saliva or milk until you are able to reach our office. We may be able to save the tooth by bonding the fractured portion back on to your tooth.
  • Simran Kaur or Dr. Matthew Garcia will likely use a dental radiograph (X-ray) to determine the treatment. The treatment will depend on the severity of the injury.
  • For a serious chip that exposes the pulp of the tooth, call us at 919-479-5800 as soon as possible.
  • If a tooth is chipped or cracked, sometimes the tooth can be fixed with just a filling or bonding alone.
  • Sometimes, a tooth is cracked or chipped in a way that the nerve of the tooth is affected, and a more complicated treatment may be needed rather than just a filling.

Tooth Displaced:

  • If a tooth is moved out of place due to trauma, call our office as soon as possible.
  • Please do not attempt to move the tooth back into place on your own.
  • For any oral discomfort before you get to the office, apply ice.

Preventing Injury

More than 5 million teeth are knocked out in sporting activities each year. While this number is staggering, the American Dental Association® estimates that more than 200,000 oral injuries are prevented every year thanks to the use of PlaySafe® sports mouthguards.

PlaySafe is the most prescribed mouthguard in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Customized to fit your mouth, statistics show that when worn properly a protective mouthpiece decreases the risk of injury by 99 percent.

While many sporting goods stores sell mouthguards, these versions are not as effective as the PlaySafe sports mouthpiece offered by Willowdaile Cosmetic and Family. That is because store-bought mouthguards cannot be customized and require you to keep your mouth clenched for maximum protection. PlaySafe, however, is made using an exact duplication of your mouth and will stay in place with no effort. This gives you the ability to put your attention where it belongs — on the game!

Free Tooth Saver Kit!
Does your child play a contact sport? Ask us about a FREE tooth saver kit (Retail $28.99) for your coach! Our goal is to supply every coach in the area! (Limit one per coach of patient on record.)

Prevent the Loss of Teeth Knocked Out in an Accident
Did you know trauma is the number one cause of tooth loss in kids ages 13 to 19? The sad fact is, only 10% of teeth knocked out in an accident can be successfully re-implanted. Using Save-A-Tooth®, the success rate rises to over 90%. Teeth begin to die within 15 minutes of being knocked out of the mouth, but a Save-A-Tooth will keep that tooth alive and undamaged for up to 24 hours.

Why the FDA, ADA and the U.S. Olympic team Love Save-A-Tooth®
Save-A-Tooth is the only tooth saving system scientifically proven to work. It has been FDA approved and received the ADA (American Dental Association) seal of acceptance — the only such product on the market to do so. Many professional organizations even recommend that a Save-A-Tooth be included in every first-aid kit, and many professional sports teams as well as the U.S. Olympic team rely on it.

Save-A-Tooth stores easily with your first-aid kit for up to two years and needs no refrigeration. For more info visit www.saveatooth.com or call Willowdaile Cosmetic and Family at 919-479-5800 for information on sports dentistry in Durham, North Carolina.