Quote:
Originally Posted by Otto  i lost a tooth wearing the mouthguard... well, i didn't loose it, it just died and had to be root canaled. very expensive excersise.. |
You bang a tooth hard enough and often not even 'hard enough' and it can die, but it was not knocked out which is my point. Teeth are my out of water business; my field of expertise.
Also I was not clear, and after being to hard on Carl for lack of clarity - tisk tisk - I should have said 'commercially made.'
There are liability issues in US for 'homemade' stuff as there is no quality control, etc. Part of the difficulty is the safety and quality issue that is put on the referees shoulders when a large variety of homemade mouth guards show up. Snorkels are basically the same and only issue is danger to other players. But mouth guard protection cannot be judged prior to useage, and the field of play is not a good place for such experiments.
I have no stake in the issue by the way. US does do a service by purchasing the Mylec guards at the minimum order of 6000 (that's a hunk of change) and making them available at a very reasonable price. They generally work very well, are safe (rounded and smooth) and sturdy.
UW Hockey has far fewer safety rules and regulations than most well known sports, and safety has to be primary or we lose pools and insurability.