Here at Goff Rugby Report, one of the more frustration things we see is how many photos show rugby players using their mouth guards incorrectly.

We see them popping out the front - a sure sign that the mouthguard isn’t molded right and keeps falling down; and we see players running around with their mouth guard sticking out the side like it’s a piece of straw. That’s not what it’s there for.

There’s a reason you aren’t allowed on a rugby field without one. It’s there for your protection. 

It’s there to stop your lip from smashing against your teeth, causing a wound. 

It’s there to help prevent your teeth from being knocked out in a collision. 

It’s there to stop your teeth from slamming together.

What it is not designed to do, however, despite coming misperception, is prevent or mitigate a concussion.

A concussion is caused when your head decelerates quickly - it goes from moving fast, to stopping - and your brain, floating inside your skull, keeps going and bangs into the inside of your head. A helmet won’t stop that from happening. Rugby head gear won’t stop that from happening. And a mouth guard won’t stop that from happening.

Published studies from the 1960s have long been used as backing for the idea that mouth guards prevent concussion. The two studies, however, are actually lab tests that imply that a mouth guard can reduce pressure inside the skull during a collision. That’s not the same thing as preventing a concussion, and medical experts such as Joseph J. Knapik, Ph.D., FACSM, Director of Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance, US Army Pubic Health Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17241103) and Jan Akervall, MD, PhD, CEO & Founder of Akervall Technologies Inc. and inventor of the SISU Mouthguard say the older studies were at best non-conclusive, and that it is dangerous to think mouth guards prevent concussion.

That said, you still need to wear your mouth guard. It will save you potentially thousands of dollars and years of difficulty in dental injuries. 

So why do we see all of these photos of rugby players with mouth guards sticking out of their mouths? Because those mouth guards weren’t fitted properly. A well-fitted, good-qualify mouth guard will stay molded around your teeth well enough so you can breathe and talk with the mouth guard in. You should be able to drink water, yell at your teammates, and protect your teeth with your mouth guard.

That’s where Sisu Mouth Guards come in. Sisu are unique, custom-fit mouth guards. They mold around your teeth so that they don’t slip down and block your airway. They have holes that allow you to breathe through them. 

Why is this a good thing? Here’s why. A study of Australian Football players showed a significant reduction in injuries to the mouth and teeth when they wore custom-fit mouth guards. Simply put, the better-fitting mouth guards stayed in the mouth, and so they did their job. http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/11/4/242.full

When you play, you can talk to your teammates without having to remove your mouthguard. This means you can play better, because you’re communicating while playing. It also means you won’t continually remove your mouth guard with your dirty hands, speeding germs on something you will put back in your mouth. (I know, yuck.)

You can drink water easily during water breaks. 

You can breathe better while playing, and in an aerobically-demanding sport like rugby, you need all the help you can get.

And custom-fit mouth guards protect better because they are designed to match the exact structure of each player’s individual mouth. They cover and protect every corner of the individual's teeth. 

Injuries to your teeth are no joke. They can be expensive, painful, time-consuming, and long-term. A good mouth guard is a supremely important investment in protecting against those problems. Don’t expect a mouth guard to stop a concussion, but get a good one anyway, because what a mouth guard DOES do is worth it.

This is a sponsored column. For more information, go to http://www.sisuguard.com