Are you Up to the Challenge? #3: Protect Your Mouth
Posted Mar 2021
By Delta Dental of Arkansas
Tagged oral injuries, athletics, sports, mouthguards
Are you Up to the Challenge? #3: Protect Your Mouth
We’ve created a 5-part series of new ideas and fun activities for parents, caregivers and educators to teach children good oral health habits and decisions.
Play online or download and print hard copies of each challenge for free use in the home and in the classroom. Boost the excitement by rewarding each milestone with treats big and small.
#3: Protect Your Mouth
The Goal
Commit student athletes to wearing mouthguards during every game and every practice in applicable sports to minimize the risk of mouth injury.
The Benefit
Wearing a mouthguard protects teeth, lips, gums, cheeks and jaws from painful, possibly severe injuries and facial disfigurement.
The Challenge
Ask your children or students to pledge that they will wear their mouthguard every time they practice or play any sport that carries the potential for a mouth injury and to track the habit on the chart below.
Examples of sports that present risk of mouth injuries:
- Football
- Soccer
- Baseball
- Softball
- Basketball
- Hockey
- Volleyball
- Gymnastics
- Skateboarding, and
- Any other activity that poses a risk to teeth and face through falls or contact with other players or equipment.
Check out these examples how mouthguards protect players.
Parents can print or copy the chart to track the use of mouthguards. If you don’t have a printer, save the image as a photo on your phone and use your photo mark-up tool to complete the chart.
Teachers and coaches may want to send the chart home on a regular basis to have parents sign off on them. Alternatively, students can keep it in their locker or gym bag so they can check it at every practice and game.
The Rewards
At the end of the week, tally the colored or crossed-out mouthguards on each child’s or student’s chart. Then reward them each time a multiplier of five is reached. Teachers and coaches may want to tally the total number of times mouthguards were worn and adjust the reward system as needed.
Tips for Grown-ups:
Are you playing sports? Model good behavior for your children and wear a mouthguard. Did you know that men’s basketball has the highest rate of oral injuries?Are you a nighttime teeth grinder? A mouthguard can help.
A Protect Your Mouth Challenge brochure, with templates of the mouthguard coloring charts, descriptions of different types of mouthguards and care instructions and more, can be viewed and downloaded for teachers/parents and kids.
Participate in our other challenges
And then take our Smile Smarts Quiz!
Check out our video resources
We’d love to hear from you how you are creating healthy smiles. Email us your success stories and suggestions for additional challenges at marketing@deltadentalar.com.
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