The crack of the bat, the snap of the leather, the cheer of the crowd – all sounds we love hearing during baseball season. And while baseball is a great way for kids to get outside and exercise, parents should take some precautions to protect their children’s teeth. Here are three ways that your family dentist can help!
Put a Face Cage on Their Helmet
Putting a face cage on your child’s batting helmet can really help protect their face and mouths from getting hit by the ball.
Face cages mostly help protect your child’s face when they’re batting, and especially at the younger ages when opposing pitchers might still be learning and can be a bit wild with their pitches.
But your child can get hit in the face with a ball at other times during the game, too, like by a batted or thrown ball when they’re running the bases or even a foul ball when they’re sitting on the bench.
You can buy a face cage at your local sport specialty store. While we hope that no child ever gets hit in the face or head with a baseball, a protective face cage can help protect their face and teeth.
Make Your Child Wear a Mouth Guard
Dangers on the baseball diamond don’t just come in the form of getting hit in the face with a ball. At any time in the game, when they’re batting, running the bases or fielding, they can trip or fall and bang their heads or jaws.
To protect their teeth and jaws, we recommend that your child wear a mouth guard. You can also buy mouth guards at your local sports store, but a custom mouth guard specially created by your dentist offers the best protection. If you’re interested in getting a custom mouth guard for your child, call our office and speak to one of our dental experts.
And parents should keep an eye on if their kids are wearing their mouth guards properly. Kids like to chew on one side of their mouth guards while the other side is hanging outside of their mouths. Not only can this damage the mouth guard but it also eliminates any protection the mouth guard can provide. If you see your kid with their mouth guard hanging out of their mouths, tell them to put it in properly!
Cut Back on the Sunflower Seeds
A young child chomping on a mouthful of sunflower seeds is truly adorable. And not that there’s anything wrong with sunflower seeds, they’re as much a part of the game as the infield fly rule, but excessive chewing on sunflower seeds can damage your kid’s teeth. They can cause chips and fractures in your child’s teeth, but over time the hard shells can cause unusual wear patterns.
A few sunflower seeds are unlikely to do much harm, but constant crunching down on hard sunflower seed shells can have a negative long term effect on your kid’s teeth.
We love the sights and sounds of baseball, but accidents can happen on the field just like they can off the field. Protect your young baseball superstar this season with a protective face cage for their batting helmet and with a custom mouth guard. Keep their sunflower seed chewing to a minimum to reduce long-term wear on their teeth.
Orion Dental provides a full range of dental services for your entire family. If you’re looking for a family dentist to help protect and take care of your family’s teeth, let us be your tooth care MVP! We have two offices conveniently located in Scarborough and Milton so give us a call and book an appointment!
