Local Doctor Creates New Mouth Guard

The mouth guard is a small, subtle, but very significant piece of safety equipment. According to the American Dental Association, sports injuries knock out at least two million teeth a year. That is why the ADA recommends mouth guards for dozens of sports, but there is a downside.

With a mouth guard in her mouth, field hockey player Lindsay Conlin told us, "It's hard to talk with this mouth guard in." She then removed the mouth guard and continued, "It's impossible to to be able to communicate on the field with an old mouth guard like this."

Now, there is now a new player in the mouth guard game called the protect Dent.

Created by ear, nose and throat doctor Jan Akervall, who uses the same thing in the operating room to protect teeth during surgery, the mouth guard is rigid and filled with tiny holes. In his lab tests, infrared images show how those perforations help absorb force -- creating a crumple zone.

"The beauty of it is that it's so thin -- it's 1.6 millimeters thick," said Dr. Akervall.

It is the boil and bite style, which means you mold it in a matter of seconds. That's a plus for some of the field hockey players from Greenhills. So is the ability to speak and drink without removing it.

"When you get off the field, your hands are all sweaty and gross and you have to take out your mouth guard just to take a drink and then you have to put it back in your mouth, which is even worse especially in the fall for colds," Conlin said.

Three mouth guards will cost you about $30. For more information, visit www.akervalltechnologies.com/index.html .