Smartguards.ca Custom Mouthguard Review

Last spring I ordered a pair of mouthguards from Darren Macdonald at Smartguards.ca, I've been wearing them for all my goalie and skater sessions since then.

My cost was $120 for a single guard or $180 for two (any design included, though I chose boring ones). This price is including a DIY kit for the mouth mold (no dentist visit required). It's less if you're in Toronto or have your dentist send him a poured-in-stone impression. Subsequent orders will be cheaper as he keeps the mouth impression (I'm not sure why I'd need to do this other than to get different designs).


Rating


Mouthguard:
Fit: 10/10
Comfort: 10/10
Breathing: 10/10
Speech: 7/10 (without mouthguard is 10/10)
Appearance/Customizability: 10/10
Durability: 10/10
Cleaning: 10/10


Smartguards.ca
Custom Fit DIY Procedure: 8/10
Customer Service: 8/10


Overall: 10/10


Summary First


There's simply nothing I would change about this mouthguard. They're perfect, they do the job they are supposed to do, and while wearing it, I completely forget it's there. They are much, *much* less annoying than the boil-n-bite mouthguards I've tried (I've had a fair number of those, even the supposedly 'better breathing' ones).


Technology


These mouth-guards are double-layer pressure laminated. They are the top-end mouthguard you can get. This is the same quality mouthguard that your dentist will offer you (unless your dentist is only offering the poorer-quality 'vacuum formed'), they're the same type the pros wear.


Darren will offer you a thicker laminate if you want, but that's really only needed for boxers, MMA fighters, etc. For hockey players, it's probably overkill. Talk to him and he will put you in the right protection based on your particular needs and wants.


Speech


Speech is not perfect, but that's just what you get when you wear a mouthguard. I can speak a lot better than with any of the boil-n-bite mouthguards I've tried. You can be easily understood when speaking with this in, although you do have a bit of a lisp.


Playing with the Smartguard


As I mentioned above, playing with the guard is great. I really don't notice it's there after I put it in. I sometimes practice without it and there's no difference with breathing. My nose is almost always blocked up partially or wholly, so I'm a mouth-breather (insert jokes here).


Though, the first time I played with it in, I found that I was chewing on the guard pretty good. Not because it was annoying, but just because. It was kind of like chewing on gum actually, it probably triggers some sort of innate oral fixation. The first game, I was really going to town on it, and the next day my jaw was aching. It was really killing me! I was a little worried that was due to the guard, but I suspected that it was because I was really gnawing on the thing. Subsequent games I kept my chewing on it to a more reasonable level and there has been no discomfort at all.


I still chew on it a bit during games, but again, it's just because it feels natural to do so. I kind of like it. And apparently, that's one of the ways that mouthguards protect from concussions, you're more likely to have your muscles activated, which helps prevent the whiplash effect.


Even after all this gnawing, the guard is still in perfect condition. There's a tiny bit of dent-like tooth marks on the bottom side of the mouthguard, but absolutely no structural issues, no scuffing, cutting, tearing etc. I don't think you can damage this thing unless you skate over it.


Protection


I can't speak much to this, fortunately. *knock wood* You can read all about double-layer laminate mouthguards and their protection against mouth injuries and concussions.


I wanted to order a good mouthguard as I'd been getting jostled a bit, and often had my mouth open. Especially bad was when I'd get lateral hits to the head when looking behind the red-line. Sure my leagues give 4-minute penalties to the slightest stick infraction, but they don't seem to care about guys dishing out blind-side hits to the goalie's head.


I took a pretty hard hit to the side of the head two games ago when a duffer couldn't stop after I'd made the save and tracked the puck into the corner, and it didn't phase me too much (though I did very clearly explain to the meathead why skating that hard to the net if he can't stop is a very bad idea. Especially when there's under 30s left in the game that they are leading 8-3!).


Last game, I took a full-on Luongo chin-shot that popped off the bottom clips on my mask. It was a hard slapper right from the face-off dot (beer league rink size). It packed a hell of a wallop but it barely phased me. My wife was taking pics and you can see that I'd picked up the puck before it even hit the ice (please hold all applause until the end of the review). Had my jaw not been clenched, or had I not been wearing a mouth-guard, I think it would have been ugly.

Note how much my mask is shifted between the first and second shots.
(All three shots have identical time-stamps. Click for bigger.)

Overall, I feel much more comfortable with this in. When I get bumped (whether hard or soft, it's far less jarring.


Customization


These things are completely customizable, so you can go absolutely crazy with it. I ordered simple white and clear ones, but you can go whole hog if you want.

Ordering and Customer Support


Darren runs his business himself in Canada. He was friendly to talk to, answered all my questions promptly via phone and email, and overall, made sure I was satisfied with my order. I gave 8/10 above because I ordered at a peak time and it took a little longer than originally anticipated. There was also an issue with one of the two mouthguards I got, which needed to be replaced (and it was very promptly). These weren't a big deal to me, that's what you get with the more personal service of a small proprietor. Most importantly Darren kept me in the loop and was very good about making sure I was happy through the process. That's what I really look for when I do business, and I would definitely do business with Darren again.


DIY Mouth Impression Process


The do-it-yourself process to have it made was pretty fun actually. Darren sends you a complete kit with everything you need to do it at home. This is using the same materials and techniques that your dentist would use, and I appreciated that I didn't have to go to the dentist to have it done.

The DIY package you get has trays of different sizes to fit your mouth and enough alginate to make four moulds (only two sets are pictured above, but I got 4 sets).


The instructions were very clear, and the process was easier than I thought it would be. You mix the blue and white putties together, put it on the tray, then press it into your mouth and leave it for a couple minutes. My teeth are a bit wonky, and I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I wound up using all four sets of alginate before I was happy with the impression.


The Kit comes return-postage-paid, so you don't pay out of pocket to ship it back, which I found nice.


I've given the DIY kit an 8/10, because it was a bit of a process, but overall a pleasant one.


Further Reading


I found the following thread on some MMA forum when googling for reviews of Smartguards. Actually, this site has several threads and the reviews are all glowing. They have lots of pictures of various designs you can print up too!


Smartguards Review - Sherdog Mixed Martial Arts Forums


More Pics

Very nice