Clinical and Laboratory Techniques for the Custom-Fabrication of Athletic Mouthguards

Abstract

The efficacy of mouthguards for preventing sportsrelated traumatic oral injuries is well documented in those sports that mandate their use. There are three general categories of athletic mouthguards that currently are available. These include stock, mouth-formed and custom fabricated mouthguards made over a dental cast. Most mouthguards in each of these categories are made from ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) material. Fabrication and design require professional services for impression taking and laboratory processing. Custom-fabricated mouthguards are, therefore, the most retentive. This presentation is designed to describe, in detail, clinical and laboratory procedures that are used to fabricate custom athletic mouthguards and will include the vacuum-forming technique and the heatpressure-lamination technique. Information on a new vacuum- pressure-lamination technique will be described as well as an experimental technique that utilizes photopolymerized urethane diacrylate. Several research topics for future investigation will be identified