Custom vs Boil-and-Bite Mouthguards for Youth Sports

From Simi Valley Little League and youth football to soccer, basketball, wrestling, lacrosse, and martial arts, youth sports build teamwork, fitness, and character. However, athletic collisions are also the leading cause of traumatic dental injuries in children and adolescents across Ventura County.

According to the American Dental Association (ADA), an athlete is 60 times more likely to suffer damage to teeth when not wearing a protective mouthguard. A single knocked-out front tooth can result in a lifetime of complex dental treatments—emergency replantation, root canal therapy, bone grafting, and eventual dental implants—costing upwards of $20,000 over a lifetime.

Investing in professional oral protection ensures your young champion stays safe on the field while avoiding painful, costly emergency room visits.

In our Simi Valley community, youth athletic participation is exceptionally high. On any given weekend, hundreds of student athletes compete across fields and courts at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park, Apollo High School athletic fields, and local high school stadiums (Royal High School Highlanders and Simi Valley High School Pioneers).

Whether competing in Simi Valley Youth Baseball (SVYB), Simi Valley Girls Softball, the Simi Valley Vikings youth tackle football program, or AYSO Region 121 soccer, fast-paced physical contact is inevitable. Having dependable oral protection is mandatory equipment for safe athletic competition.

Most parents purchase retail 'boil-and-bite' mouthguards at sporting goods stores for $15 to $30. The process involves softening thermoplastic in boiling water and having the child bite down to shape it. Unfortunately, boil-and-bite guards have significant flaws:

A custom sports mouthguard made at Aura Family Dentistry is an engineered piece of protective equipment tailored to your athlete's exact dental anatomy.

Using precision 3D digital impressions, we capture every contour of your child's teeth, gums, and arch. A multi-layered, pressure-laminated thermoplastic guard (made from medical-grade ethylene vinyl acetate, EVA) is custom-fabricated in our dental laboratory, providing uniform 4.0 to 5.0 mm thickness across all critical impact zones.

Athletes undergoing orthodontic treatment with traditional brackets and wires require specialized mouthguard engineering. A standard boil-and-bite guard can snag on orthodontic brackets and tear them off during an impact, or lock onto brackets so tightly that removing the guard bends wires.

At Aura Family Dentistry, we design specialized orthodontic sports guards that feature a dedicated recessed channel for brackets. This allows teeth to continue moving safely during orthodontic treatment while providing robust impact protection for lips and cheeks against metal brackets.

Investing in a custom sports mouthguard is the smartest protective gear purchase you will make this athletic season. Our Simi Valley office creates guards in custom team colors for high school athletes (Simi Valley High Pioneers, Royal Highlanders) and youth league players.

Clinical trials published in sports dentistry literature demonstrate that custom pressure-laminated guards reduce athletic tooth injuries by over 93% compared to wearing no guard, and provide more than double the impact energy absorption of retail boil-and-bite alternatives. Moreover, because our custom guards do not restrict breathing, young athletes maintain higher oxygen saturation levels during intense cardio sprints.

Call (213) 400-0000 today to schedule your child's fast, comfortable digital scan in Sycamore Village Center off the SR-118 freeway.