Mouth guard legal?
 

Worked a GV game last night, and during garbage time with a minute or so left I notice a girl with a funky mouthpiece.

Picture a football-type mouthguard with the strap that attaches to the facemask. It almost looked as though she tried to cut off the strap...except she left what looked like a good inch attached to the guard. Definitely visible when she closed her mouth, but probably only if you had noticed it was there when she had her mouth open. Almost like a black lollipop stick poking out of her mouth.

In retrospect if I had a do-over, I probably would have had the trainer chop it off, but by the time I figured that one out the game was over.

Would anyone have done anything different? Is this a non-issue?

What would you use to deem this illegal? I can't think of a reason or justification to.

Illegal? Nuthin'. I'm just looking at it as a potential (stabbing? :eek:) hazard. Trying to error on the side of safety, perhaps?

If it's not illegal then you don't have anything.

Was it made of stainless steel?

Assuming it's the same compound I normally see for mouth guards, I don't see a safety issue at all.

A number of years ago Minnesota required mouthguards in basketball. It didn't last long but every once in a while I see a girl with one.

I wish more players wore mouth guards. Basketball is a contact sport sometimes.
The majority of sports mouth injuries I have seen over the years are soccer and baseball (or softball) related, and not football because of the required mouth guards.

Don't they have the same issue in sports like football? They are required in that sport.

There is nothing illegal about a mouth guard and not sure why you would think it would be. Seriously do not go looking for trouble. The minute you do not allow this someone will hold you accountable when someone's teeth or gets some kind of head injury as a result. Do not go there please.

Peace

Maybe I did a very poor job of describing the situation...or maybe I just <b>am</b> making mountaings out of nothing...

The mouthguard had a piece of plastic, roughly the diameter of a soda straw, attached to the front-teeth area. This piece was (I'm assuming) a hard, non-pliable piece of plastic..it looked to me exactly like she clipped off the part that was supposed to latch onto a facemask, except she didn't clip it off close enough to the mouthguard itself. It was pointed straight out of her mouth...even when her mouth was closed..and extended a good bit out between her lips. It was definitely long enough that she could NOT have wrapped her lips around it and kept it contained in her mouth.

If she were in a rebounding situation and she jabs someone in the back of the head or a shoulder/arm, I was thinking not only would it probably HURT, but it could be sharp/hard enough to draw blood.


Was I looking for trouble? No. What I was trying to do was determine if the thing was a potential hazard to another player.

Well that changes things. Then yes that particular configuration could be a problem. But a mouthpiece that is not used for football should not be a problem.