Suitable Mouth Guard for Swimming Athletes: A Study in Amphur Muang, Chiang Mai
Objectives: To investigate suitable, closefitting mouth guard designs for swimming athletes and to determine athletes’ satisfaction with the selected design of mouth guard during swimming.
Methods: Four designs of close-fitting mouth guards were tested. The most suitable design agreed by consensus was selected for subsequent study. Twenty nine volunteer swimmers aged 10-25 years from four swimming pools were recruited and provided with the selected design of vinyl close-fitting mouth guard. The volunteers assessed their satisfaction with the mouth guard in terms of reduction of tooth hypersensitivity, ease of care, effect on breathing, convenience of use, tightness of fit, water leakage, tissue irritability and speed during swimming, using a five-level Likert scale. The fit of the mouth guard during swimming when used alone or with sodium fluoride gel was also assessed.
Results: After using the selected mouth guard, the volunteers were very satisfied with its effect on decreasing tooth hypersensitivity, ease of care; and were satisfied with its effect on breathing, convenience of use or fit. The satisfaction level with fit was significantly increased if the mouth guard was filled with a small amount of sodium fluoride gel.
Conclusions: The study identified a suitable design of close-fitting mouth guard for swimming athletes. Participating swimming athletes were satisfied with most of the assessed properties of the design.
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