Children's toothbrushes in a cup beside a brushing timer

Quick answer

A custom-fitted mouthguard, made from a mould of your child's teeth, protects better than boil-and-bite versions because it fits precisely, stays put without clenching, allows normal speech and breathing, and therefore actually gets worn through the game. Boil-and-bite guards fit loosely, drop when the jaw relaxes and end up chewed or benched. Custom guards in Sydney commonly cost $150 to $300 (many health funds rebate them), come in team colours, and need replacing as children's mouths grow, roughly every one to two seasons. With braces, never use a boil-and-bite; guards must be made around the brackets.

Why fit is the entire argument

A guard that needs a clenched jaw to stay up comes out at the first drinks break and stays out. A custom guard grips the teeth by itself, leaves breathing and calling for the ball unimpaired, and survives the season un-chewed. Ask any dentist what they see after winter weekends: the knocked-out front teeth belong overwhelmingly to the no-guard and loose-guard kids. A knocked-out adult tooth is a genuine emergency with a lifetime of dental consequences; a guard is an hour and a modest fee.

Custom vs boil-and-bite, honestly

  • Protection: custom guards are made at even, adequate thickness over the teeth that matter; boil-and-bite thins unpredictably exactly where the biting stretched it
  • Wearability: the custom guard's real advantage; it gets worn, which is the only statistic that counts
  • Cost: chemist guards $20 to $50; custom commonly $150 to $300, frequently rebated by health fund extras. Spread over a season, the difference is a pie and a drink per weekend
  • Lifespan: custom guards last one to two seasons in a growing mouth (bring it to check-ups; we'll say when it's outgrown), longer for adults

The braces answer

Boil-and-bite over braces is genuinely unsafe: it moulds around brackets and can lock on, or drag brackets off on removal. Orthodontic mouthguards are made differently, with room for brackets and for teeth that are deliberately moving. If your child plays contact sport during treatment, tell us; the guard is designed around the plan.

Which sports: rugby league and union and boxing, obviously, but the loaded question is basketball, netball, soccer and skateboarding, where elbows and falls remove teeth every week without a mouthguard culture. If the sport involves other bodies or hard ground at speed, the answer is yes.