Floyd Mayweather wears the finest sports mouth guard you could possibly dream of. It’s a $25,000 gold-leaf-infused custom mouth guard, with $100 bills embedded in the gel structure. He has that kind of money to spend, apparently.
But don’t worry, though – for around $60, you can get just about the same level of comfort and protection he has.
Let’s take a look at the top-rated options available and what they have to offer:
Our Top 3 Recommendations
1. Under Armour Flavor Blast
Features
- Five different flavors
- Can be used with strap
- Two sizes
Price: From $14.95
2. Impact Custom Mouthguards
Features
- Type – custom mouth guard
- Best mouth guard for the price
- Will last for years with proper care
Price: From $84.00
3. OPRO Mouthguard Power-Fit
Features
- Type: Boil and bite
- $20,000 dental warranty
- Made in England – posh!
Price: From $34.99
Our Choice Of The Best Sports Mouth Guard Products For 2021
Battle Sports
Price from $19.99
Pros
- Type – stock mouth guard
- Extremely breathable – the best mouth guard for football
- One size fits most
- Wide array of designs
- Works with braces
- Affordable
Cons
- No option for customization
Football players endure severe punishment on the field. The average pro defensive backer tackle slams a receiver into the turf with 1,600 pounds of force. That’s one bone-quaking impact, even through the padding and helmet.
A football mouth guard is a crucial piece of equipment for protection on the football field. While precise dental injury statistics are hard to come by, you can imagine the shockwave that permeates through your skull when tooth meets tooth after a takedown.
The Battle Sports Oxygen is a non-moldable, breathable mouthpiece made specifically for football players.
Oxygen’s most prominent feature is the amount of air it lets through. According to Battle Sports, the hole in the center of the mouthpiece “delivers more oxygen to the muscles for faster recovery, clearer thinking, and faster reaction times play after play.” This highlights just how important proper breathing is when using a mouth guard in football.
The Oxygen sits in the “one size fits most” sizing category, and the manufacturer says it fits braces wearers just as well. Whether you do or don’t have braces, Battle Sports offers a $5,000 dental guarantee; the company will pay you if your chompers get damaged while wearing the mouth guard.
Make sure you check out the wide array of designs Battle Sports offers. The Oxygen, the top-performing stock mouth guard, costs around $19.99, plus or minus a few bucks, depending on the design you choose.
SISU Mouthguard NextGen Max Guard
Price from $34.99
Pros
- Type – boil and bite mouth guard
- Light and thin
- Doesn’t impair breathing, talking or drinking
- Can’t be tethered
- Up to 20 remoldings
Cons
- Difficult to mold with braces
The ‘Max’ doesn’t refer to the size of this moldable boil and bite mouth guard. It refers to the outstanding protection SISU’s mouthpieces offer. In fact, sitting at a leaflike 2.4 mm thickness, the NextGen Max Guard is one of the thinnest and most compact sports mouth guard products on the market.
Like Ned Flanders, you’ll feel like you’re wearing nothing at all. Just follow the simple molding instructions, and you’ll get a snug-fitting mouthguard that won’t impair your talking or drinking.
A snug mouth guard is especially important in combat sports like MMA or BJJ. Being able to use the time between rounds to communicate with your corner and drink water without having to fumble the guard out of your mouth saves time and effort.
Taking the mouthpiece out is not hygienically sound, either, as it usually exchanges a few hands before it lands back in your mouth.
One of the best features these sport mouth guards have is the special, moldable plastic. It has exceptional tensile strength, enough to protect your teeth and jaw from repeated impact. The material also allows for up to 20 remoldings, which is perfect for athletes with braces.
If you do wear braces, though, there are some extra steps to the molding process. Namely, you will need to place a barrier (aluminum foil or dental wax) over your braces when fitting the NextGen mouthguard. After that, the piece goes directly on the braces. A guard on the bottom teeth will also protect your lip from bracket cuts.
There is no way to strap this football mouth guard to a mask or helmet. You can get a SISU bundle, which includes a moldable mouth guard, a case, and a canister of scented mouthguard spray for $34.52.
Under Armour Flavor Blast
Price from $14.95
Pros
- Type – boil and bite mouth guard
- Five different flavors
- Under Armour proprietary safety technology
- Can be used with strap
- Two sizes
- $32,000 dental insurance
Cons
- The flavor can be too strong for some
Many mouthguard wearers suffer from halitosis. It’s no wonder – chewing on a piece of plastic for hours on end doesn’t exactly produce a pleasant scent. Thankfully, there are numerous mouth guard sports products on the market to combat this.
The Under Armour Flavor Blast is a mouthguard that comes in five colors, each embedded with different flavor beads: electric blue (berry-flavored), pink (fruit punch-flavored), hyper green (cool mint-flavored), blaze orange (orange mint-flavored), and black (bubble gum-flavored).
Be extra careful about what flavor you choose – you will have to live with it for an entire season. If you’re not too partial to sweet flavors, we recommend you pick the cool mint flavor. The sweet flavors are a great way to get your kid to start loving their mouth guard, too.
That said, the Under Armour Flavor Blast is far from a novelty item. Many consider it to be the best sports mouth guard because it includes all the safety features Under Armour mouth guards have become famous for.
The “armor plate” outside layer provides exceptional protection, while the inner molded gel helps dissipate and absorb impacts.
Although Under Armour employed its patented “polymer shrink” technology in designing this mouth guard, some customers have reported slight breathing and talking impairments.
It can be used with or without a face mask strap, and it comes in two sizes – MD for ages 8-12 and LG for ages 12 and up. It will take some boiling to make this piece a custom fit.
Under Armour provides a $32,000 dental warranty with its products. That almost makes you want to get your teeth knocked out. The piece itself will run you around $10.
Shock Doctor Mouthguard – Nano Double Fight Mouthguard
Price from $20.99
Pros
- Type – boil and bite
- Protects both upper and lower jaw
- Low profile
- Encourages proper jaw positioning
- $10,000 dental insurance
Cons
- Can lead to breathing issues
Let’s learn a new word together: monocoque. It means “single shell” in French and is usually used to describe the structure of airplanes. In mouthguard terms, it means that the single casing of the Nano Double protects both your upper and lower teeth and stabilizes your jaw.
The hard plastic outer shell conceals a gel-like material that softens when boiled. The entire array of upper teeth leaves an imprint, and the bottom side has three gel patches for better grip and a snugger fit. After cooling, the material hardens and shrinks, making the Nano Double an exceptionally low profile mouth guard for sports.
Double-sided mouth protectors can lead to some breathing issues due to their bulkiness. The Nano Double remedies this issue with ventilation holes. Look at it this way – wearing a mouthguard that slows down your mouth breathing can be a means of practicing proper nose breathing.
The best feature of this mouth guard is jaw stabilization, which absorbs impact, disperses the energy from blows, and encourages proper jaw positioning. That makes it high in the running for the best mouthguard for boxing.
Shock Doctor offers a $10,000 dental warranty. The Nano Double is listed at around $20.
Impact Custom Mouthguards
Price from $84.00
Pros
- Type – custom mouth guard
- Eco-friendly and hypoallergenic materials
- Can be trimmed to combat a sensitive gag reflex
- Best mouth guard for the price
- Will last for years with proper care
Cons
- May take a few adjustments to get right
Normally, it would take a costly visit to the dentist to get a tooth impression good enough for a custom sports mouth guard. Impact cuts out the middleman, which in turn cuts the price of the procedure down considerably.
Once you place an order, Impact ships you a dental impression kit. The imprinting procedure is simple and doesn’t involve boiling water, which is always the safer option. You mix the powders, time everything carefully, then bite down. In less than five minutes, you’ll have an almost professional-grade imprint of your dental landscape. Impact offers an easy-to-follow instructional video for the molding procedure on its website.
Once you ship the impression to the company in the postage-paid envelope that comes with the kit, it will take around 14 business for your personalized best custom mouth guard to reach your doorstep. Impact will store your dental impression for six months. You can pay a few dollars extra for the company to keep the impression for a longer period.
Impact guarantees it will make a perfectly fitting, snug mouth guard no matter “what’s going on in your mouth.” There may be some back and forth for minor adjustments. That’s well worth it, bearing in mind you’ll get a custom football mouth guard that literally “snaps” on for a fraction of the price you would pay a dentist.
An Impact guard will endure years worth of punishment with proper care, like rinsing it with cold water after each use. The plastic is eco-friendly, hypoallergenic, and provides exceptional protection against blows. If you suffer from a sensitive gag reflex, you can order your Impact mouth guard to be specifically trimmed.
And now for the best part – the price. At around $84, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a custom mouth guard for less. You can pay a couple of bucks extra for personalization and $21 for two-day delivery.
All in all, the Impact Custom Mouth guard earns our title for the best product because of its low price and custom fit.
LiteBITE – Best Mouth Guards for Basketball
Price from $27.99
Pros
- Type – boil and bite
- Light and breathable
- Can be worn with braces
- Can be used as a nighttime teeth guard
Cons
- Doesn’t provide enough protection for combat sports
Basketball players are always at risk of getting a painful elbow to the mouth. On the other hand, they can’t afford to have something that interferes with their talking during the game. That’s why the best athletic mouth guards need to provide excellent protection while still being light and breathable.
The LiteBITE mouth guard is designed with basketball players in mind. It’s a boil and bite mouthpiece that is translucent and rubbery but still provides ample protection. Of course, it can be used by all sorts of athletes, not just basketball players.
This product even has a story – a story about a disgruntled father of five athletic children who kept misplacing their dentist-made custom mouth guards. Jimmie, the founder of the company, then came up with a way to use the same materials dentists use in their pieces to make a boil and bite style sports mouth guard.
The LiteBITE molding process is easy, even for people who wear braces. The bite plate can be remolded up to five times, in case you’re not happy with the way your piece turns out. It’s also perfect if you have nighttime teeth-grinding issues.
It cannot be tethered to a football helmet, which shouldn’t be a huge deal because there’s no need to take it out of your mouth.
Steph Curry hits 92% of his free throws while chewing this thin mouth guard for sports – a 3% increase compared to when the piece stays in his mouth! We’re not saying that a basketball mouth guard will make you a better shooter, nor do we propagate chewing it, but it will certainly make you more liberated and relaxed on the court.
The price tag is $27.99, which is not a lot for the special features of the piece. We recommend you invest an extra $5 in the carry case for safekeeping.
Shock Doctor Ultra Braces Flavor Fusion Mouthguard – Best Mouth Guards for Braces
Price from $24.12
Pros
- Type: Boil and bite
- Best product for athletes with braces
- Remoldable multiple times
- Great protection against lip laceration
- Protects both upper and lower jaw
- $10,000 dental guarantee
- Two flavors to coax the kids into wearing it
Cons
- The flavors can be too strong
- Bulkiness may cause breathing issues
Athletes wearing braces require the protection of mouth guards more than others. After all, cutting your lips on brackets is never fun. The trouble is that people with braces have highly unstable dentition. This especially holds true when they’re young, which most people who wear braces are.
Athletes with orthodontics can’t benefit much from custom mouth guards. They need a guard that can be remolded several times while still offering top-notch protection.
Shock Doctor’s Ultra sports mouth guards for braces check both of those boxes. The triple-layer structure provides top-class protection and shock absorption, while the Insta-Fit Plus adjustment system allows for continuous adaptation. This is crucial because, if you wear braces, the brackets will need to be adjusted regularly.
This particular model protects both the lower and upper jaw from laceration. That makes it relatively bulky, but the breathing holes make up for it. It comes in two colors with two different flavors infusions: “blue raz” and “rocket punch.” The sweet flavors may coax some youngsters to keep the guards in for longer. Be careful, though – the flavor can be strong and may produce the opposite effect if the kid doesn’t like it.
The Shock Doctor Ultra Braces Flavor Fusion kids football mouth guard comes with a $10,000 dental guarantee, which is very handy for those costly orthodontics bills. This highly durable and customizable mouth guard will cost you around $18.24.
OPRO Mouthguard Power-Fit – Most Hygienic Mouth Guard
Price from $33.56
Pros
- Type: Boil and bite
- Best product in terms of fit and retentiveness
- Can be remolded up to 20 times
- Special anti-bacterial agent protects against 99.9% of harmful microorganisms
- $20,000 dental warranty
- Made in England – posh!
Cons
- The molding process can be a bit complicated
A challenger appears from across the pond. Even though the British aren’t renowned for their dental care, the land of rugby and cricket still has athletes who need their teeth protected in impact sports. OPRO is one of many English mouth guard companies that manufactures some of the best products on the planet.
The OPRO Power-Fit comes with some innovative features. For starters, the fitting gel on the mouth guard is ribbed. The fin structure, according to OPRO, has been designed using data from around a million custom guard fits. It is anatomically designed to provide the best gel fit when softened in hot water. OPRO’s 20-year experience has led to a comfortable and retentive fit that’s on par with some of the finest sports mouth guards made by dentists.
Molding the mouth guard is easy, especially when you follow the helpful instructional video on OPRO’s website. Power Fit mouth guards can be remolded multiple times; just be sure to keep the guards in hot water for an extra 20 seconds each time you do it. The fitting cradle that comes with the product makes the whole process completely foolproof.
Sports mouth pieces can be a breeding ground for contagious bacteria. OPRO products are made with a special additive that provides 99.9% protection against harmful microorganisms. This additive is proven to be resistant to the dangerous MRSA bacteria group.
The OPRO Power-Fit costs between $34.99 and $77.89. The company offers a 14-day money-back guarantee and a $20,000 dental warranty.
Fight Dentist Junior Boil & Bite Gel Mouth Guard – Best Youth Football Mouth Guard
Price from $19.99
Pros
- Specifically designed for young athletes
- A fit snug – no drops
- Facilitates proper jaw positioning and lessens the strain on the TMJ
- Near-perfectly fitting boil and bite mouth guard
- Simple design
- Excellent protection for gums and teeth
Cons
- Prone to rubbing on the gums if not fitted properly
Fight Dentist considers the proper fitting of a mouth guard to be the most important feature. If your child takes part in impact sports, you should feel the same way. The best mouth guard for kids can protect them from any harm during sports, especially football.
However, children consider loose-fitting guards to be a nuisance, and that interferes with their will to train and work hard.
More importantly, though, an improperly fitted mouth guard loses most of its protective properties. The safety of your child should always come first.
Young athletes’ jaws are still developing. Therefore, a youth football mouth guard should encourage proper jaw positioning and foster proper growth. Their gums and lips are also much more sensitive than your average athlete. Fight Dentist’s boil and bite guard ticks off all of these goals with its proprietary technology.
Developed by dentists with decades of experience, these boil and bite guards have a near-perfect fit, comparable to custom mouth pieces.
Fight Dentist’s impact defense system provides excellent protection for lips and gums by ensuring that the guard has a snug fit and does not “drop.” The ergonomic design of the football mouth guard for kids is shown in the varying thickness of gel across its length. Your kid pops it in and forgets about it – that’s how it should be.
If you and your child are serious about training for any sport that includes potentially harmful impacts, don’t bribe them with colorful designs or candy-flavored trinkets. Buy them a proper, simple, functional mouth guard that will teach them the importance of proper protection.
You can order the Fight Dentist mouth guard designed specifically for young athletes for around $20. They come in three simple, transparent colors – black, pink, and green.
Dental Duty Professional Dental Guard – Mouth Guard Sports Authority
Price from $17.99
Pros
- Type: boil and bite
- Can be used as a sports mouth guard, despite it being a nightguard
- 30-day money back guarantee
- Two sizes – adult and youth
- Two thicknesses – regular and thin mouthguards
- Affordable – two sets of mouth guards in each package
Cons
- Not designed specifically for athletes
You might not have heard of the term bruxism, but you’ve probably encountered it. This is the bane of many spouses across the country. A partner’s constant and incessant teeth grinding will make you lose sleep literally by keeping you awake and figuratively, as you worry about their health.
Choosing a mouth guard, even if it is an academy sports mouth guard, might help in this case.
Flattened and worn-out teeth, jaw pains, all kinds of headaches, a bad night’s sleep. These are just some of the consequences of gritting teeth. Bruxism itself can be a symptom of other problems, such as high overall stress or more serious diseases like Parkinson’s.
While there is no direct cure, a mouth guard for clenching can alleviate most of the negative side-effects of Bruxism. It acts as a shock absorber against headaches and protects teeth enamel from the wear and tear.
Our choice for the best night guard is the Dental Duty Professional Dental Guard because of its excellent price-to-value ratio. For just $15 on Amazon, you get four dental guards and an anti-bacterial case.
While you may not get a professional, tooth-perfect occlusal guard, this boil and bite product will get you as close as possible for a fraction of the price. If you don’t succeed in getting a satisfactory fit, you have 30 nights to sleep on it. Dental Duty offers a money-back guarantee or a replacement piece for unsatisfied customers.
This product can also serve as a sports mouth guard or a teeth-whitening tray.
Your Dental Duty Professional dental mouth guard will have a much longer lifespan if you care for it properly. Consider purchasing Dental Duty’s anti-bacterial retainer cleanser tablets. Take a glass of water, pop the retainer and the tablet in, and in 15 minutes, you’ll have a clean and disinfected guard.
The guards come in two sizes: a regular adult size and a small boy’s and girl’s mouth guard. It’s also available in thin and regular fits. You can buy it on Amazon for around $14.
Our Methodology for the Best Sports Mouth Guard
In case you didn’t realize, people ≠ sharks. We don’t have an infinite supply of razor-sharp teeth. The best we get is a once-over when we’re kids, but after, that we’re stuck with the one set for the rest of our lives.
If you plan on engaging in activities that could result in getting your face bludgeoned, a mouth guard is a smart investment to protect your pearly whites. Think about it – would you rather pay $10 for protection now, or $3,000 per tooth after the sweaty old guy elbows you in the face during Thursday night basketball practice?
Didn’t think so. Therefore, let’s delve deeper into mouth guards. There are three main types of sports mouth guards:
- Stock mouthguard – This the simplest, over-the-counter option. You buy it in full-form, with complete sterilization, and ready to use. Stock mouthguards have one major downside: different people have different mouth shapes. Because it’s not made specifically for your unique dental landscape, a stock mouthguard will almost always require you to keep your mouth closed to stay snug.
- Boil and bite mouthguard – You plunge a horseshoe-shaped gel pad into a pot of boiling water to soften. You fish it out carefully after a couple of minutes, quickly put it into your mouth and bite down. You keep it there for a minute or so, take it out, and voilà – you’ve got yourself a mouthguard that conforms to your teeth much more closely and precisely than a stock piece would. Just make sure you follow the instructions on the package carefully.
- Custom mouthguard – A custom football mouth guard is molded to an imprint of your mouth. This is by far the highest-quality option. It allows for the greatest possible airflow, let’s you speak almost normally, and prevents you from looking like a dope who can’t even drink water without spilling half of it on the floor.
Some companies, like Impact, send you a dental imprint kit. You follow the instructions carefully, return the imprint, and the company will send you back a mouth guard. At around $60, we think this is the best piece for the price.
Parents should wait for their children’s dentition to become stable before investing in a custom mouth guard.
Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing the Best Sports Mouth Guard
There’s no way around the fact that you will need to try a mouth guard out before knowing if it’s right for you. Here are a few things you should consider before and after trying one out.
1. The three questions – Can you breathe, speak, and drink while wearing it?
It’s always a trade-off between comfort and protection with sports mouth guards. Generally, the bulkier it is, the more it will protect you. At the same time, that means that it will probably interfere with basic things you do with your mouth, like drinking and talking. One thing’s certain – if it rubs anywhere, it’s not right for you.
2. Type – Are you in the market for a stock “one size fits all,” a boil and bite, or a custom mouth guard with a mold using your dental impression? As you’d expect, the more expensive, more customized options are usually the best. You should also consider the ease and ways on how to clean a sports mouth guard.
3. Remoldability – If you get a boil and bite mouth guard, chances are you will not be happy with your first attempt at molding it. That’s why good mouth guards can be boiled multiple times again. Some products can survive remolding up to 20 times.
4. Braces – If you wear orthodontics, make sure your sports mouth guard is compatible with it. Because your dentition changes rapidly when you wear braces, make sure you buy a moldable mouth guard.
5. Strap – A mouth guard for football usually has a perforation at the front to attach a strap.
6. Flavored mouth guards – Some manufacturers offer mouth guards infused with flavor beads. They can help with bad breath issues or encourage kids to wear their guards. Be careful, though, as these flavors last for a long time and are quite strong. If you don’t like it, you’re stuck with it.
7. Dental warranty – A mouthguard is supposed to keep your teeth intact. If your teeth get damaged while wearing it and you incur dental bills, you should be entitled to some coverage. Most manufacturers offer to cover a certain amount of these bills, from $5,000 to $30,000.
Top 10 Best Sports & Workout Mouth Guards Items in 2021
Here’s a round-up of the best pieces, all of which serve different purposes and excel in different ways.
We hope it will help you make a good decision and educate you about the different features mouth guards can have.
- Battle Sports – Best for Football
- SISU NextGen Max Guard – Best for MMA
- Under Armour Flavor Blast – Best Flavored Piece
- Shock Doctor Nano Double Fight Mouthguard – Best For Boxing
- Impact Custom Mouthguards – Best Custom-Made Piece
- LiteBITE – Best for Basketball
- Shock Doctor Ultra Braces Flavor Fusion Mouthguard – Best for Braces
- OPRO Power-Fit – Most Hygienic Mouth Guard
- Fight Dentist Junior Boil & Bite Gel Mouth Guard – Best Youth Piece
- Dental Duty Professional Dental Guard – Best for Teeth Grinding
People Also Ask
Our experts have debated this question heavily, and our answer comes down to custom-fitted mouth guard products.
These are the best options out there, primarily because they are custom-made to fit each person’s mouth and jawline.
Custom mouthpieces massively help protect against concussion and heavy trauma. According to the latest research, custom mouthpieces reduce concussion chances by up to 50%.
Athletes should wear mouth guards in every contact sport, especially those with heavy tackles. These mouthpieces will help protect the athletes’ jaw and teeth from hard hits and potential damages.
With that in mind, here’s a list of the top sports where athletes should make use of mouth guards:
- Rugby
- Football
- Soccer
- Basketball
- Handball
- Hockey
- Field Hockey
- Boxing
- Martial Arts
- Skiing
- Squash
- Surfing
Our pick is the Impact Custom mouth guard. This product offers all the benefits of a professional dentist making your own personal mouth guard for a fraction of the price. You place an order, Impact mails you the dental impression kit.
You then follow the instructions and mail the impression back. Within 14 workdays, you get a piece that is specifically molded to your mouth.
The Impact Custom mouthguard costs around $60. If you’re in a bit of a rush, the company will expedite the delivery process for an extra $21.
If you play basketball, consider a LiteBITE mouth guard. A basketball mouth guard should be light, breathable, and it shouldn’t impair your speaking.
It should also provide protection against stray elbows. LiteBITE, a boil and bite mouth guard, checks all of those boxes.
It’s a multipurpose piece – it can be used as a night guard against bruxism or as a teeth-whitening tray. For $35, it’s a steal.
Typically, mouth guards cost between $10 and $100.
However, the price depends on various factors. Will you use it for teeth clenching, heavy sports activities, impact sports, or simple workouts?
It also depends on the type you’d like to buy, whether it is with a flavor, thin, or is with a design for braces specifically.
In our review, we’ve compiled a list of the finest and top-rated sports mouth guard products of all types and for all purposes.
