Metal Mouth Message Board

Under the list of things I wished I known now comes "dont boil your mouthguard". Had started wearing it at night to reduce the pain of clenching my upper and lower teeth together. After a few nights thought I'd better clean it because it was beginning to look at little the worse for wear. Anyway, I put it in boiling water for about 5 minutes to kill any germs and when I tried to put it on that night found it had distorted and bent so that it no longer fitted round the teeth. I put it on anyway as best I could and woke up this morning to find it gone. I cant quite believe I have swallowed a whole mouthguard - although I had a good hunt for it so...............

Braces, mouthguards...........what next.......bed socks........

Hi Kazan,

Most "plastic" oral appliances are made by heating up the material until it becomes sticky/pliable and then pulling the material over a model of your arch and activating a large suction tube to pull the material flush against the model. As you have found out, heat will change the shape of the appliance. In the future, a good brushing is the best way to clean it. You can try soaking it in mouthwash, but it will stain the mouth guard.

Good Luck,
Rory

Thanks Rory. Will follow your advice!

I soak mine in mouthwash. It's green so the color isn't changed by it. I often lose my mouthguard during the night. I just hope I don't grind my teeth when it falls out.

Do you use your mouthguard with elastics?

Holy smokes!!! You swallowed it? That's not gonna feel good coming out.

LOL. did you really swallow it? how on earth did you manage that?

I thought with mouthguards, you are meant to boil them, then take them out and quickly bite into them so that they fit into the mouth perfectly. thats whats done for sports mouthguards.

I thought with mouthguards, you are meant to boil them, then take them out and quickly bite into them so that they fit into the mouth perfectly. thats whats done for sports mouthguards.

Yeah - that's only the ones bought from the chemist though. If you get one proper made then you definitely don't put boiling water on it!

Lol !

Uhmmm, I guess after boiling it, it was in some kind of molecular
transient unstable situation. It must have vaporized shortly after that.
Now, it is in a gas state and escaped the room ...

Oh sorry, couldn't resist. Your post gave me a good laugh though.
Thanks for this nice post !