Sports season is starting. What do we actually need to check about our mouthguard?

The five-minute check before the first practice

Find whatever guard is currently living at the bottom of the sports bag and actually look at it, rather than assuming it is fine because it was fine last year. Check for cracks, spots worn thin, or a shape that looks stretched out of its original form. Have your child bite down and talk with it in. A guard that shifts around, feels loose, or muffles speech more than it used to has stopped fitting the way it should.

A wash in cool, soapy water and an air dry finishes the check. If it comes through all of that looking right and fitting the way it did last season, it is genuinely fine to keep using for another year.

Why last year's guard sometimes is not this year's guard

Growth is the most common reason a perfectly good guard from spring no longer fits by fall. Jaws and teeth keep changing through the tween and teen years, sometimes enough in a single off-season to make an old guard feel noticeably tighter or looser than it used to.

New braces or another orthodontic appliance change things even more directly, since a guard fitted before hardware went on rarely sits the same way over it. If anything about your child's mouth is different than it was last season, braces, a growth spurt, a new gap from a lost tooth, that difference is worth a look before assuming the old guard still does its job.

It depends on the sport and how this season is shaping up

A guard that was plenty for recreational play might not hold up the same way for a more competitive schedule this year, and a new sport altogether calls for its own check rather than borrowing whatever guard is already sitting in the closet. If your child added a contact sport this season that they were not playing last year, do not assume last year's guard, built for a gentler activity, is automatically the right fit now.

Which style actually makes sense for this season's sport and schedule is worth asking your pediatric dentist directly rather than guessing in a store aisle.

When it is worth a call before the first whistle blows

Call ahead of the season, rather than after the first hit, if last year's guard fails the check above, if braces or another appliance are new since the guard was made or bought, or if your child is stepping into a contact sport for the first time this year.

None of this needs an urgent visit. It fits naturally into a checkup already on the calendar, or a quick call ahead of the season: (239) 482-2722, Monday to Friday, 8 to 5. A real human answers and can tell you what actually needs a look.

Making it part of the regular gear routine

A mouthguard that lives with the rest of the equipment, in the same bag pocket as cleats or shin guards, gets remembered far more reliably than one stored somewhere separate and easy to forget. Rinsing it after every practice and letting it dry in a vented case, rather than sealed up wet, also helps it hold up for the whole season rather than turning unpleasant by October.

A mid-season check is worth doing too, not just a pre-season one, since young mouths keep changing even across a single sports calendar.