Studies on Custom-made Mouthguard Materials. Part 1. Thickness.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate various custom-made mouthguard materials. At the present time, sheet type materials and molding type materials are available ascustom-made mouthguard materials. In this paper 10 kinds of the sheet type and 4 kinds of themolding type (Molteno soft, regular, hard type and Elastomer) were tested on the reduction ofthickness and the deformation under the static loading.The results were as follows;1. The sheet type materials before forming were classified into the thin group (less than 2mm), the medium group (around 3mm) and the thick group (about 4mm). After forming, theirthickness were reduced about 20 percent.2. The permanent deformation was found in the thin group of the sheet type and less than3.0 mm of Molteno soft, less than 2.0mm of Molteno regular, 1.0mm of Molteno hard andElastomer under 30kgf static loading.