I have never worn a mouthguard. I have never worn a helmet, for cricket. I have never worn a helmet when cycling. Yet i expect and insist on my children wearing them. What a hypocrite. Why should i have these double standards. I believe that I never wear them because, i wasn't bought up with them. My parents found it hard, to get used to wearing seatbelts, when they became compulsory, yet i don't have a problem with seatbelts. Looking around both my cricket and hockey team, I reckon less than 20% of adults where mouthguards or helmets (cricket) when playing our games. Is this not foolhardy, given dental work could easily cost many thousands of pounds. One fellow cricketer had to have over £5000 worth of treatments done after a cricket ball hit him in the mouth. Opro manufacture mouthguards and are the market leader, offering various levels of insurance cover, included in the cost of the mouthguard. This weekend, I got hit in the mouth with a hockey stick. My mouth and gums do not look pretty but, it could have been far worse. So, i will today buy myself a mouthguard, to use in my next game. I too could have been looking at dental bills running into the thousands but, I was lucky. Drinking soup through a straw is all have I to suffer, so it must surely be worth £15, to save me from loads of physical and financial pain. If you play sport, do you use a mouthguard? If not, why not?
