Because the use of mouth guards in youth and high school football,
lacrosse, and ice hockey has been mandatory since the early 1970's,
these sports have experienced a dramatic decline in the number of
dental and jaw injuries. Instead, published reports show that the
majority of mouth injuries occur in such popular youth sports as
baseball, basketball, soccer, field hockey, softball and gymnastics,
which lag far behind in injury protection. Recent studies also report
that oral and facial injuries to female athletes exceed those in males.
