SISU mouthguard (formerly known as ProTech Dent)

After my disgusting story about how I got cavities from my year-old mouthguard, I decided it was probably a good time to get a new one. Probably.


I really liked my old mouthguard, it was one of those ultra-thin ProTech Dent mouthguards that you mold yourself at home. Apparently now ProTech Dent is called SISU for some reason, but it's more or less the same thing.

The SISU mouthguard is basically a really thin piece of plastic that you custom mold to the shape of your mouth. It has lots of litle holes for easy breathing and drinking water and whatever, and I think having the holes also helps with with absorbing shock (kind of like how shock absorbers on cars have spaces in between them for compression).

The molding process is relatively easy to do. You start with the mouthguard being this flat bit of plastic, which you drop itno a cup of hot water:

Cup O'Mouthguard. Mmmm.

Then when it's all soft and stuff, you just put it in your mouth and push the bits up against your teeth and gums, making sure it is a snug fit. Notice that a "snug fit" when the mouthguard material is soft and pliable is VERY different from a "snug fit" when the material hardens; at that point it's like a retainer and becomes actually kind of painful on the teeth. I'd suggest not taking their instructions about making a suction while the material is forming too seriously; the first time I did that it hurt like the dickens to take the mouthguard off or put it on (but once it was on my teeth it was okay).

I usually take about 2-3 goes to get my mouthguard right. I find that sometimes you might get bits at the top near your gums that are a bit scratchy, so you have to redo it when the edges of the plastic start cutting into your gums, or if it's too tight or something these are things you can fix the next time you mold it. All you need to do is pop it back in the hot water and let it unfold (which looks kind of cool) and then do the process again.

Attempt #2.

 And then when you come up with a fit that you like, you're done!

This time I am actually going to try to clean my mouthguard regularly so I don't end up with all disgusting cavities again and having weird stains on my mouthguard.

Don't worry new mouthguard, I'll take better care of you
than I did the old one.