While researching for this article, I called my boxing guru and asked him about can we get into the ring with braces on? To my surprise, it was more common than I thought, and there are so many boxers who don’t want to pull themselves back just because of braces.
But, there is a real risk of getting hurt very badly if you directly get hit on your mouth, especially when you’re fighting with your braces.
So, Can You Do Boxing with Braces?
You can box with braces as long as you wear a proper custom-fitted orthodontics mouthguard. Although there is always a potential risk of serious damage to your teeth and surrounding area, but you can minimize the chances by wearing protective gears and building a solid defensive technique.
What Happens if you Box with Braces on?
Even though there are lots of people who either undergo teeth correction surgery or wear braces and still box without any issue, however, you should always remember, that you are certainly placing yourself vulnerable to potential damages.
Braces might seem to be the safest way to correct your teeth structure but when you’re in front of an aggressive opponent, these braces can cause many serious injuries including:
Also, it puts extra pressure on your wallet too. No matter what kind of braces you put on, orthodontal treatments are not cheap at all. And, by standing in the boxing ring without your braces on, you’re doing nothing but adding more to that expense.
If a high-impact hit by your opponent directly lands on your face, it may break the whole intricate handiwork done on your teeth and force you for another unwanted expensive as well as painful fix-up.
The mouth and surrounding area are the primary targets of most of the boxer’s offense and that’s why every small level of caution becomes very important for you.
How to Stay Safe when Boxing with Braces?
Unfortunately, most of us won’t able to get a normal tooth structure naturally and are required to put on braces to fix it. But that doesn’t mean you should forget about boxing: Here’re some of the nasty solutions that surely allow you to box with braces:
1. High-Quality Mouthguard
This is of course the fastest and go-to way to keep your expensive braces safe and avoid any unwanted long-term injury.
By wearing a sport-mouthguard, you’re essentially providing solid protection on your teeth that absorbs the high-impact blows and help you to take punches better.
Standard Mouthguard
Any decent and standard boxing mouth guard will definitely provide you with an ample amount of protection against high-impact hits on your face. It will also provide protection to surrounding soft tissues and avoid cuts to the lips and inside the mouth.
The only issue I feel with these standard guards is, that they need to be fit snug against your teeth and should not move between your teeth and lips.
But: we also need to consider the space taken up by the braces, which won’t allow these standard mouthguards to fit perfectly on your teeth, no matter how much you experiment with different shapes and sizes.
That’s why I recommend you to go with custom mouth guards. Even though they are relatively more expensive than usual mouth guards but are tailored as per the structure of your mouth and fit properly on the top of your braces.
Orthodontic Mouthguard
No doubt, a standard boxing mouthguard is the simplest and the cheapest way to address this problem, but, (Although it’s my personal opinion) I think a quality orthodontic mouthguard is one of the must-have protection gear for any boxer or martial artist.
The main reason why I am recommending you this type of mouthguard is not only the protection you gain but also the level of support and comfort it provides you throughout your boxing training.
Orthodontic mouthguards have to be molded and properly fitted around your braces and jaw alignment, so they won’t move freely and slip out of their place.
I am simply putting this straight, these kinds of mouth guards will cost you a few hundred dollars, but do you really think it’s a good idea to save money on protection gear when you’ve already spent thousands of dollars on your braces.
No matter if you look towards boxing as a hobby or a career, this initial investment in an orthodontic mouthguard will definitely help you in the long run.
2. Wear a Headgear
Even though headgears may not be used in professional boxing matches but they can definitely add another layer of protection on top of a mouth guard and work as a safe buffer during sparring sessions or even amateur fights.
This becomes even more crucial in extreme contact sports like boxing where you need to take most of the offense directly on your face.
That’s why I consider a protective headgear as a savior for boxers, especially those who are wearing any orthodontic equipment (like in our case, braces!).
The most common and safest type of headgear is the full-face helmet that covers almost all the areas including your chin, and skull that is open to bad damage and significantly reduces the chances of getting serious injuries to your jaw muscles and head.
3. Practice Good Boxing Defense
You might think this is very obvious but a proper defense technique is not only an excellent way to protect your braces but also help you to get a competitive edge on your opponent.
All the protective gears I talk about earlier are only going to minimize the high impact of the opponent’s punch and are not going to provide complete protection to your mouth.
Your teeth and jaw muscles are already vulnerable to immediate injuries due to braces that’s why proper self-defense is required in order to avoid your face directly coming in contact with your opponent’s blow.
Allowing you to focus more on the defense side rather than lots of offensive techniques also help you to sharpen your personal technical abilities and teaches you how you can leverage different opportunities to counterattack the opposing boxer.
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Final Thoughts on Boxing with Braces:
I’ve seen so many amateur boxing fights where players are wearing braces and are successfully able to complete the fight without any severe injuries.
You definitely can practice boxing with braces but you should never forget to wear your protective gear. The more you care for your braces and ensure your own safety, there are fewer chances that you end up with any serious long-term damage.
I hope this article helps you to understand the various risks you may need to face due to braces and what you can do to minimize the chances of getting injured. Please share this article with your other friends and help this blog grow. Thank you! 🙂
