What Are Smart Mouthguards And Will They Be Used In Boxing?

Boxing is the oldest sport in existence to mandate mouthguards, and ensuring a boxer has a custom-fit gumshield is vital not only for their health but also their career. However, could smart mouthpieces be used during fights to potentially save lives?

Regularly used in rugby, a smart mouthguard has sensors and gyroscopes that can detect hard impacts and allow medical teams to quickly evaluate players for potential concussion symptoms.

Could such a system be applied to help protect fighters? How would such a mouthguard fit in a decentralised and individualistic sport as boxing? And how could it be used in boxing events?

How Would A Smart Mouthguard Protect Boxers?

Smart mouthguards are already used in boxing and other combat sports such as MMA, typically to monitor fighter health during sparring as well as to monitor overall performance.

Several innovations have been developed over the past decade to allow for significant amounts of data to be monitored whilst requiring a chip small enough to fit within a custom-designed mouthguard.

They are currently used to shape tailored sparring and fitness routines, but is there potential for it to be made mandatory for actual fights?

Could Smart Mouthguards Be Used In Boxing Fights?

One proposal that was made, most notably in a TalkSport article in 2019, was that smart mouthguards could not only be used in training but in the ring itself.

It could potentially detect sudden head movements and impacts, use them to calculate how strong an impact was and warn a ringside doctor that a fighter may have a concussion.

One concern is that, unlike rugby, knockouts are a core part of boxing, and any impact with the power to knock a human being out also has the power to cause a concussion.

However, a mouthguard can help to clarify situations where a boxer is in the fight or between rounds but may be suffering from the effects of a concussion, allowing doctors to intervene and potentially stop a fight with the same power a doctor or referee already has.

One potential complication is that boxing has four global governing bodies and hundreds of regional authorities, which could lead to situations where one organisation mandates a smart mouthguard whilst another still considers them illegal.

Exactly how this would work for unification fights is unclear, but it remains an option to help preserve safety in an inherently dangerous sport.

Could Mouthguards Change How Mixed Martial Artists Train?

Over the past few years, one of the biggest research areas in the field of sports mouthguards is the potential they have to protect the participants of contact sports both directly and indirectly.

In particular,smart mouthguards, which feature sensors that can warn doctors, teams, referees and players themselves if they have taken a hard enough hit that they might be at risk of having a concussion, have evolved from a promising concept to being rolled out in Rugby.

One particular question that has troubled MMA fighters and trainers is the effects of full-speed full-contact training, with a lot of questions being raised as to which types of training increase the risk of injury and particularly repeated concussions.

This has led,according to ITV News, to a project by the University of Essex in conjunction with MMA gym The Combat Institute in order to study how athletes approach full-contact training and how head impacts during sparring sessions affect the health of fighters.

The study investigates the use of smart mouthguards, how they can be used to quantify potential head impacts and how this information can be used to shape training protocols and allow athletes to shift their regimens as soon as possible.

Given that a risk factor for early-onset dementia is repeated concussions and heavy impacts to the head, having a system that can help athletes to protect themselves and determine the difference between a stiff bump and a potentially concussion-causing impact is essential.

The study, led by Dr Nasir Uddin, aims to equip athletes with the knowledge that could help them make sensible decisions when it comes to their training and how hard they want to go on any given day.

Given that everyone wears mouthguards during contact training and sparring, and the widespread use of smart mouthguards in sports such as rugby has allowed them to get cheaper and more versatile, it could provide the same revolution to training as fitness watches.

Can Dental Retainers Prevent Further Orthodontic Treatment?

After having orthodontic treatment to straighten teeth, you might wonder what happens next. The process of applying, adjusting and removing fixed braces can be time-consuming and often painful – a process you probably don’t want to do again. 

Over time, your teeth undergo mesial drift, which is the tendency for them to move very slowly out of position, migrating toward the centre and front of your mouth. 

So you may be wondering how to keep your new smile and prevent the need for further orthodontic treatment. One way to do that is to use a dental retainer which doesn’t move your teeth but keeps them firmly in place. 

What are the different types of retainer?

When the braces come off, that is not the end of the story for dental treatment. Retainers are the usual next step. There are three main types:

Hawley retainer

These are recognisable as retainers and are very visible to other people. They involve a hard plastic palate and metal wires are fitted to go around your teeth. 

Due to the bulky nature of the Hawley retainer, speaking can be difficult when you first wear one, and for those worried about looks, it is not a subtle option. 

Fixed retainer

A fixed retainer is glued to your teeth like braces, although usually on the inside so it is less visible. They can cause hygiene issues if not cleaned properly and can be uncomfortable against the tongue. 

Both the fixed retainers and Hawley retainers should be fitted by a dentist. 

Moulded and vacuum-formed retainers

The most comfortable to wear of the three options, these are made using a moulding technique which squeezes the air out, creating a tight fit around your teeth. 

The teeth retainers are easy to remove and put in, and because they sit snug around your teeth, they are more comfortable to wear. Being made of transparent rigid material makes them much less visible than their metal counterparts.

These types of custom-fit dental retainers do not need a dentist to fit them and are available to order online at low prices.  

Without the use of a retainer, your teeth will eventually drift back to their pre-treatment positions, undoing all the hard work.